A 17-year-old high school student who spoke harshly in public comments at a meeting of Alma d’Arte Charter High School’s governing board found himself in an encounter with Las Cruces police on March 18.
School officials later said they did not know who placed the call. Dispatch records indicate the call was placed to central dispatch, not 911, and that the caller was the spouse of principal Adam Amador.
The incident, previously reported by the Las Cruces Bulletin, unfolded during an open meeting at the arts-based public charter school, which is governed by its own board of directors. The student, who identified himself as Steven van Coblijn, complained in a raised voice that he had been expelled from the school without any disciplinary process, made a disdainful remark about Amador that included an expletive, set down the microphone and left the podium. The board’s chair, Richelle Peugh-Swafford, asked him to leave the meeting, but he declined. At that point, some spectators defended the student’s presence, with one calling out, “He’s fine. He can stay.”
Peugh-Swafford then ended public comments and the board went into closed session to discuss the principal’s evaluation.
Police arrived at the school auditorium while the board was still out of the room. An officer entered the auditorium, where people were waiting for open session to resume, and said he was responding to a report of disorderly conduct and wanted to take the student out of the room to conduct his investigation. Spectators negotiated with the officer on behalf of van Coblijn, who began filming the interaction with his mobile phone.
Dispatch records indicate five police officers responded, but no caller or anyone from the school appeared to speak with police. The board returned from closed session and continued with the meeting as the officers looked on from the entrance to the auditorium, and eventually left.
Following the incident, the principal told the Bulletin he did not know who had made the call, as he and the board had been in closed session.
“To my knowledge, no one on the governing council called the police nor requested that they be called,” Peugh-Swafford told the Bulletin. “We were all in closed executive session.”
Dispatch notes indicate the call came in at approximately 6:46 p.m., a few minutes after the board went into closed session. The caller was Kari Amador, who is married to Adam Amador.
“I’m at Alma d’Arte charter school and we’re here at a board meeting, and there is a student and a parent getting unruly; and they’ve asked me to call and try to get someone to come and remove them,” Amador told the dispatcher in the phone call, per public records. Describing the situation further, she says, “When they were asked to leave, the whole room was like, ‘We’re going to let them stay,’ so that’s why I’m over here in the corner. I’m kind of scared that I’m going to get in trouble. They’re going to come try to mob me, I think.”
Van Coblijn’s mother was in attendance at the meeting but was not among those who gave public input.
“As stated before, I was not aware who made that call to LCPD. Nor did I direct anyone to do so,” Adam Amador told the Bulletin when asked about the call.
“I was asked by some concerned community members to call the non-emergency dispatch,” Kari Amador told the Bulletin. “I do not know their names or connections with the school. I did not have any contact with any board members or Dr. Amador while they were in executive session. Other than this, I have no further comment.”
Under New Mexico’s open meetings law, public comments are not a requirement of public meetings, although public input is commonly included on the agenda with limits on time and expectations of decorum.
“It is not okay for anyone to yell profanity in a public meeting. As board president, it is my job to run an orderly meeting,” Peugh-Swafford wrote in an email. “Our goal as governing council is graduate artists and scholars who are prepared to succeed.”
