The removal of a student from a legislative viewing area of the state Capitol on Wednesday — which some lawmakers say included an unnecessary and disproportionate level of force — is prompting an investigation by Colorado House of Representatives leadership.

Videos posted on social media and shared with the Denver Post showed Colorado State Patrol officers lifting a student from his chair and hauling him out of a public viewing space of the House of Representatives. It also showed a staff member forcing a standing student into his chair.

“Students are demanding we act to prevent gun violence, but they shouldn’t have to come to the Capitol to protest for their lives,” House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat, said in a statement. “I am concerned with the response to the protest in the House Gallery. From what we have seen, it was clearly disproportionate to the students’ actions. We are calling for an investigation into the response and will take the necessary steps to prevent this from happening again, including review of the responsibilities, protocols and training for our sergeants at arms.”

The removed student was part of a group of dozens of students, many from North High School in Denver, protesting gun violence and demanding action from lawmakers. It was a far smaller contingent than had previously filled the Capitol this year. The student is not being named because he is a minor and not accused of or charged with any crime.

As the House worked on budget bills early Thursday afternoon, a small group of protesting students sat in the gallery balcony overlooking the floor. One of the students in the gallery stood up and began shouting about violence facing students and schools.

The student’s comments were “something to the effect of, ‘What are you going to do, students are dying,’” said Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat who was in the chamber below.

Outbursts from the gallery violate the House’s decorum rules and potentially disrupt legislative proceedings. The chamber’s sergeant-at-arms – a quasi-security staff that enforces rules and access to the chamber – attempted to remove the students. They would not leave, lawmakers who witnessed the incident said, and troopers from the Colorado State Patrol, which oversees security in the Capitol, arrived on the balcony.

Several videos taken by onlookers in the gallery show troopers approaching a row of students, one of whom was the one shouting. The troopers begin telling the teenagers to leave. One student — seated next to the teenager who was shouting — remained sitting, and a trooper began pulling on his arm and the hood of his jacket.

Body cam footage released by the Colorado State Patrol on Thursday morning shows troopers approaching the group of students and asking them to move so they can remove the female teen who was shouting. One student stands and exits the gallery. The other remained seated, and the troopers carried him by his arms and legs out of the chamber. The female student whose outburst prompted the response then began shouting again.

Video shows another teenager then stands up and asks “how many more kids will die.” A House sergeant standing behind that student placed both of his hands on the student’s shoulders and pushed him back down into his seat.

By custom, practice and training, House sergeants-at-arms only use physical force when a lawmaker’s safety is at risk, though there doesn’t appear to be a specific written policy, according to House officials.

Master Trooper Gary Cutler, a spokesperson for the state patrol, said one person was removed from the Capitol and barred for the day, while others were just removed from the gallery. No arrests were made.

Protestors were being disruptive and not abiding by trooper orders, he said.

In the hallway outside of the chamber, the removed student can be heard on body camera footage arguing with Rep. Ron Weinberg. Weinberg asks the teenager to take a breath and “give these officers some respect.” The student, who was initially placed on the ground outside of the gallery, cursed at the troopers, told them he wasn’t shouting or causing a disturbance before he was removed, and accused them of ripping his jacket.

“They should give me some respect,” the student told Weinberg.

Peyton Carter, a sophomore at North High School, said in an interview she was the first one who yelled. She said “it was rude,” but also “it felt like we weren’t being heard” by policymakers.

Carter said she was warned that more disruptions would lead to her expulsion, but she said the trooper was “needlessly aggressive” toward the Hispanic student. The removed student wasn’t being disruptive, Carter said, except to defend her on First Amendment grounds. She accused security of targeting the male student because of his race, versus going after a white female.

“They violently lifted him limb by limb and dragged him out of the hall,” Carter said. “The part that really broke my heart is that they put him in handcuffs. He didn’t do anything and they put him in handcuffs and made him leave the premises.”

Cutler, with the Colorado State Patrol, denied that characterization. The student was removed because he was obstructing the troopers’ ability to reach the shouting girl, Cutler said. While troopers did hold the student’s arms behind his back, no restraining device was used, and he was laid on the ground as easily as troopers could manage, he said.

Troopers had no intention of arresting anyone, and Cutler noted the student is allowed back in the Capitol now. Cutler also noted that the vast majority of protesting students were allowed to do so unimpeded, including speaking with the governor.

“We understand (students’ right to protest),” Cutler said. “But we still have to go by different rules and laws when it comes to the safety of the Capitol, and we can’t be hindering the legislative process that’s going on.”

Keira Mulligan, a sophomore at North High School, said she filmed the incident and corroborated Carter’s view. Prior to the forced removal, another student was voluntarily leaving, she said. The student who was hauled away “wasn’t being disruptive at all,” though he seemed to be refusing to leave.

“I just think it’s becoming too common in our society for stuff like this to be happening,” Mulligan said. “We were hardly doing anything, we weren’t a violent threat, we weren’t a threat at all, and they still decided to meet us with violence.”

Mulligan and Carter used the incident as an example of why armed security in schools isn’t their goal, with Carter specifically worrying it would lead to violence against students of color.

“The police aren’t here to protect us,” Carter said. “They’re here to enforce us.”

Cutler explicitly denied any race-based motivation to the troopers’ actions and highlighted troopers’ regular anti-bias training.

“That is completely false,” Cutler said. “The officers involved in this incident responded based on the actions and behaviors of the individuals they interacted with.”

Rep. Lorena Garcia said she and other legislators, who ran up to the balcony to intervene, told the troopers not to arrest the teenager and that they were hurting him. Garcia said troopers shoved the teenager in the back as they removed him from the building, and the student was “freaked out” that the situation would escalate further.

Rep. Monica Duran, the House’s majority leader and a Wheat Ridge Democrat, said in a statement that she had “a lot of questions about how and why this happened.”

“Our children are scared of being shot in their classrooms,” she said. “They are sick and tired of gun violence plaguing their communities. They came to the Capitol (Wednesday), as they have been for weeks, to ask what we’re doing about it. So I’m very disappointed by how they were treated, specifically that a young Latino student was dragged out of the chamber with a level of force that felt unnecessary and disproportionate compared to the treatment of his peers.”

The decision to remove the student Thursday left several lawmakers shaken and angry. The situation escalated unnecessarily, Sirota and Garcia said, especially given that the students were likely unfamiliar with House rules. Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, tweeted that she was “livid and heartbroken.”

“I don’t know why they chose to use such force,” Sirota said. “I found it really disappointing. These are kids. They are scared, understandably scared, about what is going on in our country and in our schools. I think they have a right to want to feel safe and to let us know how they feel.”

Students, in part in response to the recent shooting at Denver East High School, have repeatedly come to the Capitol to protest and demand gun reform in recent weeks. Students have also joined in a national protest movement to demand leaders stop school shootings. On Monday, hundreds of students filled the Tennessee Capitol in reaction to the shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville.

During the Wednesday protest, Gov. Jared Polis met with dozens of gathered students to outline steps being taken by the legislature and his administration’s support of them. Lawmakers have either passed or are reconciling amendments on bills to expand who can file extreme risk protection orders, increase age limits on who can buy rifles and shotguns, add a waiting period before people can claim purchased firearms and limit liability protections for the firearm industry.

But some of the protesting students wanted more.

Students showed up at the Capitol because they “care about our lives, we care about our right to live,” Nayeli Lopez, a 15-year-old sophomore at North High School, said. Lopez said it felt like robotic talking points. She advocated for more school funding.

“The safest schools don’t have the most cops, they have the most resources,” Lopez said.

“We’ve talked about this for so long,” she said. “Since before I was born.”

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