The principal of Salida High School was back at work Wednesday after a set of circumstances involving a school lockdown on Sept. 23 that led to his arrest.

The Salida School Board reinstated Talmage Trujillo after a seven-hour executive session that went into the wee hours on Tuesday night. Trujillo had been on paid administrative leave since the disturbance.

According to an arrest affidavit, the incident started as an altercation just before noon between Trujillo and an unidentified juvenile who was reported to be suicidal and walking toward the high school with a gun.

The teen, according to the warrant, was not enrolled in the school. In the warrant, officer CJ Meseke wrote that it was his decision to put the school on lockdown at 12:15 p.m.

“My main concern was it is not safe practice to bring aggravated suicidal persons with reported weapons to a school,” wrote Meseke.

An already tense situation took a strange turn when, at one point during the lockdown, according to the affidavit, a male wearing a mask and “a black hooded sweatshirt with the hood over his head” started banging on one of the school’s back doors and pulling on the handles trying to get inside.

The man turned out to be Salida School District Superintendent David Blackburn, who then told deputies to “get the F… out of my school.”

Once officers let Blackburn inside and communication was restored with Talmage, who had left school grounds in an effort to calm the juvenile, the situation began to wind down. 

Trujillo was arrested three days later on four misdemeanor counts in connection with the disturbance.

During the board of education’s marathon meeting, members watched video footage from the school, listened to viewpoints of what happened from staff and interviewed Trujillo, who was present with his attorney.

In a public statement, the board said it found discrepancies between what law enforcement reported in the arrest warrant and what they heard from witnesses at the meeting.

Further, the board said, “We want to learn from our experience and improve our response,” suggesting also members have a meeting with the Salida City Council and improve their now damaged relationship with the Salida Police Department with the help of a “neutral party.”

The next court date for Talmage is a status conference on Nov. 2 at 9 am.

Blackburn did not respond to requests by The Denver Gazette for an interview.