AURORA | Aurora Public Schools has fired a Pickens Technical College teacher accused of firing a BB gun from his car on school grounds, saying he was being harassed by the FBI, according to school district documents.
Kenneth Roberts, 68, has taught at Pickens since the beginning of the school year. On Oct. 3, a 911 caller reported shots fired from a green Subaru at the intersection of East Sixth Avenue and Airport Boulevard, adjacent to the college, according to a memo addressed to Roberts from Pickens executive director Tenia McConnell.
APS security placed Pickens and several other nearby schools on secure perimeter at the time.
The Subaru the shots were fired from was on the Pickens campus, the memo said. Roberts was identified as the car owner, and he was removed from campus while police investigated. At one point, an Aurora Police Department officer asked Roberts if he owned a BB/pellet gun, according to school district records.
“You indicated you did, but stated it was at your home,” the memo said. “Your backpack was subsequently searched by an APS Security Officer who located a BB gun that resembled a Glock 19 firearm. When questioned by the Aurora Police Department Officer regarding the incident that took place at the intersection of (East Sixth Avenue) and Airport Boulevard, you refused to indicate whether or not you fired the BB gun at another motorist’s vehicle.”
Roberts was placed on paid administrative leave from APS until the district and APD finished their investigations, the memo said.
The following day, Roberts gave a statement to district officials, saying that he was being harassed by the FBI due to his participation in an “investigative story” on alleged wrongdoing by the bureau. It was unclear from school district reports how Roberts is related to any story of investigations he referred to.
“You said that after you had contacted them about the claims against them, that the FBI was not pleased with you and they kind of went into retaliation mode and from then until now you have people chasing you around in trucks,” the memo said. “You said they (the FBI) were particularly obnoxious this past week and that you just got fed up and that you ‘dinked them with a BB gun.’”
The memo said that Roberts’ conduct was “reckless and dangerous” and led McConnell to question his ability to continue to work as a teacher. She recommended that his employment at APS be terminated.
Roberts previously worked as a substitute teacher at Cherry Creek Schools briefly in 2021 and worked as a teacher at a Brighton charter school for less than a full school year in the early 2000s, according to hiring documents. He also held a series of jobs as a database administrator at various companies in Colorado.
According to online records, he has no previous criminal history in Colorado.
The FBI Field Office declined to comment on Roberts’ allegations.
“While individuals are free to speak about their interactions with the FBI, we do not, as a matter of practice, discuss or describe any contact we have or allegedly have with individuals,” spokesperson Vikki Migoya said in an email.
At its Dec. 13 meeting, the APS school board received a recommendation from the superintendent for Roberts’ dismissal “due to immorality and other good and just cause as contained in the Teacher Employment and Compensation Act.”
In Colorado, dismissals of non-probationary teachers must be presented to a school board before they take effect, and teachers have a right to appeal the decision. If they do not contest the dismissal within five days of receiving it, it will happen automatically. If teachers choose to contest, it will next be reviewed at the state level.
District spokesperson Corey Christiansen said in a Jan. 3 email that Roberts did not appeal his dismissal, “thus, per the statute, the dismissal is final.”
An email sent by The Sentinel to Roberts’ work email in December had not been returned by press time. A representative of the Aurora Education Association declined to comment.
At press time, Roberts had not been charged with a crime by the Aurora Police Department in connection with the incident. Police spokesperson Sgt. Faith Goodrich said that the case has been marked “inactive,” meaning there is not probable cause to charge Roberts with a crime unless more information becomes available. Roberts did not confess to officers at the scene and there is no video evidence of the reported shooting, she said.
“This would be a case where we think we know what happened but we can’t prove it, and therefore there’s just not enough to arrest him,” Goodrich said.
This guy has problems that go far beyond the FBI. Far beyond.