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Students walk out over gun violence following deadly shooting on Seattle school campus — UPDATE

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The students at North Seattle’s Ingraham High School will lead a walkout across the district Monday morning with students from Capitol Hill area schools including Garfield High School expected to make the trek to City Hall to call on officials to address gun violence.

The Seattle Student Union advocacy group spread word of the plans last week and over the weekend after last Tuesday’s fatal shooting of a 17-year-old student on the Ingraham campus. Another young man has been arrested for the murder.

The student union group’s demands include increasing the number of mental health counselors available on campuses, increased training for SPS staff, a ban on assault rifles, and updated safe storage laws.

But others are calling for the return of Seattle Police school resource officers to campuses.

SPD Chief Adrian Diaz is lobbying for more officers and a change in policies to allow SPD officers back on public school campus. Diaz, last week, called for the city to hire more officers and for Seattle Public Schools to restore programs like the “school resource officers” that used to be deployed on area campuses. In the summer of 2020, the Seattle School Board suspended a partnership with SPD that provided five armed officers at Seattle schools. The program — which cost the district about $120,000 a year — remains on hold.

UPDATE: Here are some scenes from Monday’s walkout and rally:


Thanks to Tony Quan for sharing this video from the day

The Seattle Public School system like many in the nation has focused on training around gun violence and “active shooter” situations for students and staff over infrastructure like metal detectors that has proven costly and ineffective in the past. SPS says training topics include “first aid, verbal de-escalation and conflict management, critical incident management, child abuse and other safety courses.”

The district’s Safety and Security Department also “monitors and responds to schools 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” SPS says, while secondary schools like Ingraham are assigned school security specialist that “respond to critical incidents in schools, de-escalate and intervene in volatile situations, and investigate and file security incident reports.”

Meanwhile, there has been a surge in gun violence beyond schools since the pandemic. Seattle and King County report a major surge in shots fired that has continued into 2022 (PDF). Recent area incidents including gunfire over the weekend outside 12th Ave nightlife venues and a shootout last Tuesday night that sent two to the hospital on MLK Way. Mayor Bruce Harrell has supported SPD’s “hot spot” approach to policing to knock down the surge and is making the case for spending on new gun detection technology in the next budget. His recent visit to Capitol Hill included a closed-door meeting with business owners to talk about neighborhood safety issues including concerns about gun violence after a string of nightlife shootings in the area.

The debate over preventing gun violence at schools flared last last year at Garfield High. CHS reported in December 2021 on a Garfield community discussion about how to better protect students and the campus from gun violence following a shootout on the school’s grounds.

In 2021, Chief Diaz also advocated for the return of school resource officers but solutions that centered around community and larger systems were also proposed.

Garfield Principal Dr. Tarance Hart asked parents and community members to volunteer at Garfield. Once school is dismissed, volunteers are needed to be on campus during late practices and other school activities. More broadly, he said he wanted students to have mentorship and exposure to different pathways and careers.

“There’s a lot of needs that aren’t about security,” Hart said. “This is a systemic issue, we need to talk about how to solve those issues.”

Following the Ingraham shooting, Superintendent Brent Jones has announced the district will undertake a system-wide “safety and security” audit.

For Monday’s walkout, Seattle Public Schools has provided families with “Civic Engagement Activity Excused Absence” forms to allow kids to participate with an approved absence.

The walkout is expected to begin around 9:50 AM.

 

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