The mother of a student at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colorado said that the school’s “woke” policies allowed her daughter to be groomed by one of her teachers for years.
According to the New York Post, an investigation by the police and the school allege that former social studies teacher Leann Kearney, 37, alienated the underage student from her parents to control her and help her “navigate her sexuality.”
“This was years of grooming. Then she took her,” the mother reportedly said. “She took my kid.”
Investigators hired by the district said that Kearney was “grooming” the girl when she was a student. Apparently, school emails obtained through an open records request showed that counselors kept this information from the student’s parents while they helped the student declare herself homeless on a federal form so she could move in with the teacher.
Reportedly, the parents alleged that Columbine Principal Scott Christy also knew about the girl's plans and did not inform her parents.
Kearney reportedly “ran off to Oregon with her student the moment the girl turned 18,” the Post noted.
Perv teacher groomed my daughter in class and then stole her away — and woke school officials helped her, mother says https://t.co/Fuwswik8yG pic.twitter.com/L446GLvtGJ
— New York Post (@nypost) February 23, 2025
“She was 15 when she was in Kearney’s class,” in 2018, the girl’s mother told The Post. When her daughter was 15, Kearney began asking colleagues about the application process for the student to declare herself homeless (via NYP):
Since the teen entered Kearney’s class as a sophomore in 2018, the two exchanged 24,000 text messages, spent dozens of hours on the phone, met in secret, and — according to a note written by the teen — even kissed while the girl was underage, according to investigations by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and school district that were viewed by The Post.
Kearney got the girl a job at her Planet Fitness gym and let her use her pickup truck. At one point Kearney’s girlfriend dumped her, and she told investigators Kearney’s relationship with her young student was a point of contention, according to the investigative documents.
The mother claims Kearney pushed her daughter to submit a fraudulent application for federal “homeless youth” status, which would allow her to move out of the house — and away from the watchful eye of her parents.
Kearney and her victim recruited her guidance counselor, the principal, and another teacher for help, telling them the teen was in a dangerous, abusive home and didn’t feel safe staying with her parents.
But the staff never contacted her parents themselves and never checked her story out — not even with her younger brother, who went to the same school and had the same guidance counselor.
When the counselor forwarded the student’s federal form to a district official, she specifically asked them not to contact the student’s parents, the investigation found.
This month, Christy publicly apologized for the situation in a letter.
“This horrible situation will haunt me for the rest of my life. I am deeply sorry for the pain this family has experienced,” Christy said.
The school district released a statement, as well.
"Obviously, the student did not meet the criteria to be considered homeless and the staff involved in this isolated incident were addressed as part of the investigation as the proper channels in place were not followed…While we have taken every step to remove this former employee from Jeffco and prevent her from working in another educational setting... we recognize this is of little comfort to the family.... we deeply regret how profoundly this violation has affected their family,” the statement said, according to CBS News.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member