By Zach Hillstrom and Jon Pompia

The Pueblo Chieftain

The 12-year-old girl reported missing on Monday after failing to show up for school at Heroes K-8 Academy — who was later was found safe in her home Tuesday afternoon surrounded by her pets — was reportedly hiding out to avoid going to school, mostly because of ongoing bullying, Pueblo police said Wednesday.

The girl told investigators that though she awoke Monday morning and got ready for school, she instead chose to hide in a shed behind her home in the 2800 block of Baltimore Avenue, said Eric Bravo, who heads the Pueblo Police Department’s investigations division.

The girl reportedly told police she hid in the shed overnight but returned to her home Tuesday morning when she noticed the police presence.

Detectives returned to the home on Tuesday and found that the doors to the residence, which had previously been unlocked, were locked. Police also said the home was severely cluttered.

“So, one of our ID people went through a window," Bravo said. "The little girl, she had gone back into the bedroom. That’s where she was contacted by the ID detective.”

Police launched a full-scale investigation after the girl was reporting missing. At least 15 detectives and 10 patrol officers worked the case over two days, and bloodhounds were brought in from Denver to attempt to track the girl's movements.

Pueblo PD was also aided in the investigation by representatives with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

“We had the whole division working it,” Bravo said.

“That’s the (Special Victims Unit), the crimes against persons unit, the property crimes unit … it was a full-scale response.”

Pueblo City Schools (D60) says if a student is feeling bullied or threatened, the first act of recourse is reporting it.

Per the district's policy, "bullying" is defined as one or more of the following behaviors occurs to the point of interfering with the student's educational opportunities:

• When a person is exposed to negative actions.

• When one person has more power, so the person being victimized feels that he or she can't defend themselves.

• When a person, who is a target, feels embarrassed, hurt, scared or angry and the student is not able to defend him or herself appropriately.

The key to corrective action is to report any inappropriate behavior, the district's policy states.

"Bullying cannot be investigated or corrected by the district until the district has been made aware of such bullying," notes the policy. "Therefore, persons are directed to report all incidences of bullying to either a teacher, counselor, assistant principal or principal in their school building."

Reporting could be made anonymously.

All reports are investigated, according to the policy, and if the conduct is determined to be bullying, the district has pledged to take "all reasonable action to end the bullying, to prevent recurrence, to prevent retaliation against the student making the report and anyone participating in the investigation."

Disciplinary measures can include suspension and expulsion.

The district's anti-bullying efforts have been bolstered by a three-year $2.1 million Colorado Department of Education’s School Bullying Prevention and Education Grant to implement evidence-based bullying prevention programs, which include a social-emotional learning curriculum. The district aims to reduce bullying incidents by 50 percent over the three-year grant period.

zhillstrom@chieftain.com

Twitter: @ZachHillstrom

jpompia@chieftain.com

Twitter: @jpompia