Colorado teen high on LSD dies in car crash; dad says school should have warned him

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) -- The father of a teen boy who killed himself by smashing his car into a street pole while high on LSD and THC says his son's school could have warned him about his son's psychedelic drug use but didn't.

“It's the worst thing anybody could go through, and when you find out that people you trusted knew and they could have done things to help you, it makes it that much worse,” said Brock Williamson, Caden Williamson's dad.

According to a police report, Caden, who had just turned 17 when he died in May, sent a text message to his girlfriend prior to the crash near West Ken Caryl Avenue and Kendall Boulevard.

The message said he had “reached a higher plane of existence, in which he realized his time on this earth was done, and he was going to move onto another dimension.”

Brock Williamson said he was not aware of his son's LSD use prior to Caden's death.

Williamson said officials at Caden's school, Chatfield Senior High School, could have warned him of Caden's LSD use because his son's girlfriend's mother, Alicia Ornelas, had warned them about it weeks prior to Caden's death.

Brock Williamson said Ornelas' information about Caden's LSD use was never relayed to him after Ornelas reported it to the school.

“How does that school not give you that information? How do they not tell you?” said Williamson.

Instead, Williamson said, the school falsely claimed it had received an anonymous Safe2Tell report, prompting them to search his son for drugs. He said the school failed to tell him that the tip specifically mentioned LSD or that it came from Ornelas, not Safe2Tell.

When they searched him, “(Caden) had a vaping pen on him, which he shouldn't have had, and apparently he had a small pocketknife in his backpack,” said Williamson, but they didn't find any drugs. He said his son was suspended from school for one day for having the other items.

Williamson said he was unaware of how the tip about his son had originated, so he expressed concern to school officials another student may have made a false report against Caden.

“(The school official) said, 'I understand. I don't see a concern with drugs here,'” Williamson said. “All they had to do is tell me (about the LSD allegations),” said Williamson, who acknowledged that he attributed recent changes in his son's personality to possible marijuana use.

According to Jeffco Public Schools, “No Safe2Tell report was created,” in Williamson's case.

Ornelas said she did not ask to remain anonymous. “I never asked, and they never mentioned,” she told the FOX31 Problem Solvers.

“I'm not blaming the school for Caden's actions. I've always supported the school, but you can't lie to parents. Period. You cannot lie to a parent,” said Williamson.