KIRO 7 investigates a gap in Seattle school safety plan

SEATTLE — Almost three months after the city of Seattle announced a $14.55 million plan to improve safety for students with more mental health support, violence intervention, community partnerships, and law enforcement support, a KIRO 7 investigation uncovered a major gap in tracking the progress.

The city pledged additional police patrols at five high schools before and after school and during lunch, as staffing allowed: Chief Sealth, Franklin, Garfield, Ingraham, and Rainier Beach.

But KIRO 7 found out officers aren’t logging their visits.

That means the Seattle Police Department cannot say if or when they’ve been there.

“I can believe that,” Appollonia Washington said. Washington owns A 4 Apple Learning Center a few blocks from Garfield, where her son is a sophomore.

“I just feel like [police] have a lack of resources on their end to make sure that they’re keeping a relationship with Garfield,” she said. “But we need them.”

KIRO 7 went out to check in person on October 17 and spotted an officer after school at Garfield.

However, according to SPD logs, there have been zero patrols from the beginning of the school year through the end of October.

It’s the same story for all the schools except for Chief Sealth, which had six patrols, known as “premise checks,” logged.

“The point is to build relationships and that lack of consistency is a real barrier,” Alicia Spanswick said. Spanswick has two children at Garfield. Both she and Washington are on Garfield’s Parent Teacher Student Association; Spanswick is co-president while Washington is co-vice president.

KIRO 7 wanted to ask Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones if he knew about the logging gap and if there was some other way the district could be tracking it.

After KIRO 7 requested an interview several times, the district stated that Dr. Jones would sit down with reporter Linzi Sheldon on November 7. The day before, an SPS spokesperson canceled, writing via email that there were “a few emerging issues” keeping Dr. Jones “away from the office for the next few days.”

But Jones did show up on Nov. 7 at a community meeting about closing Sacajawea Elementary. He declined to talk to a KIRO 7 news crew there.

KIRO 7 followed up twice, offering three more days for an interview. On Nov. 12, an SPS spokesperson wrote via email, “Dr. Jones is unable to interview. He’s out sick.”

Spanswick and Washington have a lot of questions for him about the police and the rest of the plan.

Washington’s childcare center had a bullet hole through its window just over a year ago after a drive-by shooting. Children were inside at the time, but luckily, none were hurt.

“I just thank God for keeping us safe,” she said. “And man, I’m going to get tearful. My mission is always to provide a loving and safe environment for the children in our community. And now I’m more vocal than ever.”

Both she and Spanswick want to see regular police patrols at Garfield—ideally, the same officers so that students can get used to them and build a relationship with them. Spanswick said she would love to talk to SPS about what it would take to get an officer trained in community engagement placed at Garfield.

“What I’d really like for SPS is for them to realize we’re not adversaries,” she said.

“This is a crucial time for Garfield, too,” Washington said. “We’re really trying to rebuild all around, losing Amarr.”

KIRO 7 obtained internal SPS Safety and Security reports that show the shooting death of 17-year-old Amarr Murphy-Paine was actually the third safety incident in a chaotic hour on June 6 this year.

First, at 11:30 a.m., a teacher said that a student wearing a ski mask shot him with “a high-powered air gun.” He said pellets hit “my legs, chest, bare face and bare neck.”

The teacher stated, “I am afraid for my other fellow teachers who also have this student, because I want to make sure that they are safe as well.”

Fifteen minutes later, at 11:45 a.m., a student “reported that another student may have a weapon in his backpack.” That report states that the student refused a bag search and then “ran out the southeast door” and away from campus.

At 12:30 p.m., a third report states “gunshots could be heard from outside the front of the school building.” Amarr was shot in the school’s parking lot as he tried to break up a fight. No one has been arrested.

“It’s a challenge every day to send my child there, but he’s like, ‘I love it, Mom,’” Washington said.

The safety challenges at Garfield are why Washington and Spanswick feel so strongly about hearing from SPS when it comes to progress in this new plan.

“Student surveys, are we doing any of those kinds of things to check in periodically with the kids? I would love some kind of dashboard or a newsletter that’s like, ‘This is what we’ve done so far. This is what we still need to do,’” Spanswick said.

The city said there is no public dashboard to track the plan’s spending of the $14.55 million or the progress. The mayor’s office told KIRO 7 that a dashboard is “under consideration,” but the city does “not have a timeline on when this type of tool would be available. Our focus is on finalizing implementation plans, along with formal agreements, as well as finalizing our performance metrics for these investments.”

The plan includes $5.6 million for additional mental health professionals to support students across the district.

KIRO 7 checked with Seattle King County Public Health. A spokesperson said they expect 21 new mental health therapists will be working by early 2025. Public Health said it plans to contract with community organizations to hire 21 new care coordinators and expects new staff to start working in the spring of 2025.

The district says it hasn’t spent much of the $2.3 million set aside for “enhancing its safety personnel framework” because it’s still in the “early hiring stages of safety and security positions.” The district announced its newly hired Executive Director of Safety and Security on October 21.

The city said it hasn’t decided how much money to put into a new Family Resource Fund to help students and their families at the highest risk of gun violence.

Washington and Spanswick want to know if the funding for all these supports is guaranteed next year—and the years after.

They also said they want to work with SPS.

“We need you to hear us and hear our kids when they tell you and when we tell you what we need,” Spanswick said, “and have the conversation. Be open with us.”

“Everything we ask for, we need,” Washington said.

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