Officials at Columbine High School under investigation after falsely claiming student was homeless so she could live with teacher

According to a CBS Colorado investigation, Jefferson County receives hundreds of thousands of dollars for students who are homeless, and the more homeless students a school district has, the more funding it's eligible for.

The girl's mother, who remained anonymous, told the outlet that the district used her daughter for financial gain. She alleged that three years ago, she learned Columbine High School teachers, counselors, and the principal had devised a plan to help her daughter run away from home.

She told CBS, "This is not a story, this is a nightmare." She added, "This was deliberate, it was calculated, it was intentional," and claimed that school district employees filled out a federal form claiming the girl was homeless when they knew she wasn't, and discussed in emails how to hide it from her parents by not using their contact information.

The mom said, "If I would not have found this paperwork underneath her bed, I would have had no idea that this was happening behind our back."

Jeffco Public Schools claimed the form is "not a declaration of homelessness" and "generates no revenue through any sources for Jeffco Public Schools." However, the form asks if the student is "an unaccompanied homeless youth" or "unaccompanied, self-supporting youth at risk of homelessness." The district has received at least $405,000 for homeless students since 2022, according to the Colorado Department of Education, and the mother believes the district made money at the expense of her daughter's safety.

CBS reported that an investigator hired by the district discovered that Columbine teacher Leann Kearney was "grooming" the daughter and had asked a co-worker about "the process for declaring a student homeless" as far back as 2019. The mother told the outlet she texted Kearney not to contact her daughter after finding thousands of texts and phone calls between them.

After informing the school principal, Scott Christy, the mother said she was told that Kearney "helps kids navigate their sexuality." The mom told the outlet, "So you've just been given information that of some sort, there's some type of inappropriate relationship happening between an adult and a child, and you can say in the same two-hour meeting that she takes a special interest in helping kids navigate their sexuality."

The investigator hired by the district said the principal showed a "lack of urgency ... possibly a lack of memory ... and lack of follow-up," claimed the texts and calls were a "boundary issue," and didn't tell Kearney to stop, because Kearney was on military leave at the time and believed the investigation could wait until she returned in six months.

But the mother said that after her daughter turned 18, she moved in with another teacher while Kearney was deployed, then went missing. She turned up months later in California with Kearney. She claims 10 school employees helped her daughter run away with a predatory teacher instead of alerting social services as required by law. She said, "What they ultimately did was stripped away our parental rights, inserted themselves as surrogate parents. If you did this once and there are no consequences, you're fully capable of doing it again."

Her husband had to demand for months that the district investigate Kearney and then push the Colorado Department of Education two years after the incident to revoke Kearney's teaching license. The mother said even after the district's chief legal counsel called the case "egregious," she was told they couldn't guarantee Kearney didn't teach again.

While Jeffco Public Schools admits Kearney wasn't fired but resigned, and claimed, "If we had not accepted her resignation, then she would have remained on leave pending a formal termination process that can take several months."

According to emails obtained by CBS, the principal, and the district's Title IX coordinator planned to allow Kearney back in the classroom, but now, three years after the mom first told the principal and four days after CBS Colorado's initial story, the school is planning on doing an "after action review.”

The principal told the investigator that he counsels students on their sexual orientation and claimed the girl didn't think her parents supported that she was a lesbian, but didn’t talk to the parents, claiming he was worried the girl would be resentful.

The mom told CBS, "Nothing has or ever will change the unconditional love we have for our daughter. Nothing. She was failed by Jeffco Schools, her predatory teacher, and 10 mandated reporters, but she will never be failed by her family. We have been fighting for her every day for 3 years and we will never stop."

The Sheriff's Office began investigating Kearney in 2023 but has not charged her and is now investigating everyone else involved.