SEATTLE — Police officers will not be back inside Seattle schools for the start of the school year on Sept. 3rd, but the school board could vote this month to allow a pilot program at Garfield High School.
Despite an effort from the district, city, and the Seattle Police Department that KIRO 7 first broke in May, lifting a 2020 moratorium that bans police inside Seattle Public Schools is still up in the air.
Instead, on September 9th, the Garfield community will have one more chance to weigh in.
Parents, students, and community activists have strong feelings about the proposal.
“The violence that Garfield faces stems from the outside community and bleeds into the school,” Garfield graduate Athena McDermott told the school board at its August 27th meeting. “Kids will not stop getting shot and killed at Garfield because of counselors alone.”
“Students don’t need to be policed, but protected,” Garfield graduate Rilan Springer said. “When letting an SRO back in, we demand they remain around campus, not inside the building… SPD should not be there to punish students, should not able to punish students.”
“I see the introduction of SEOs as oppression of black people at Garfield,” Sonya Herrera, a member of the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, said.
“Parents and students have already fought to get cops out of schools once before,” Jonathan Toledo, also a member of the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, told the board.
“We don’t want cops at all,” Seattle Student Union President Leo Falit-Baiamonte said.
He told KIRO 7 some students at Garfield shared their discomfort with the idea of a police officer back inside the school. And the group has a lot of questions if the pilot program at Garfield does move forward.
“Where would this money be coming from to hire this cop?” he asked. “How will we make sure that cops do not play a part in discipline? If it’s at Garfield, what stops it from going to other schools?”
The student union’s fight began this spring.
“Yeah, so after we saw on KIRO News that Police Chief Barnes intended to bring cops back into school, that was a shock for many organizers in the Seattle area,” he said.
That was when KIRO 7 reporter Linzi Sheldon sat down exclusively with Deputy Mayor Tiffany Washington and Chief Barnes.
“When I talk to people, they want us to return to the schools in some capacity,” Barnes said then.
SPS Executive Director of Safety and Security Jose Curiel Morelos told Sheldon that a memorandum of understanding to lift the current moratorium was ready for the school board to consider.
That was back in May.
“We believe that it is enough time, at least for Garfield, to have somebody in place by the start of the school year,” Morelos said.
So why is it September and no decision?
“Why are we continuing to spin our wheels?” Garfield PTSA board member Alicia Spanswick asked. She’s been waiting for an officer since last year. Her daughter is a senior at Garfield this fall.
“We can’t be lulled into thinking that crisis is over, and we can just go back to whatever we were doing before,” she said, “because I do think that it will spill back onto campus.”
“Some people might look at this and say, why is it taking so long?” Sheldon asked SPS Interim Superintendent Fred Podesta.
“So, we did bring it to the board in June, introduced it,” Podesta said. He said based on the testimony they heard at that meeting and feedback at the board, they needed to do more engagement.
SPS held a meeting with the Garfield community in July and will hold another session on September 9th.
SPS Accountability Officer Ted Howard, a former principal at Garfield, tried to assure board members about the role of an office there.
“Who picks the officer? Well, that happens jointly between SPS and SPD,” he said. “Are they directly involved in discipline? They’re not. Not at all.”
The city of Seattle said if the pilot program does move forward, funding would come from SPD’s budget.
But some board members appeared unconvinced about lifting the moratorium and leaning toward an exception for Garfield alone.
“Would that mean then that the moratorium would stay in place and there would be a narrow agreement just for Garfield?” Sheldon asked Podesta.
“I mean, we haven’t worked through the mechanics yet,” he said, “but I think there’ll be a space in that moratorium to allow for a pilot at Garfield and I expect that the board will then want us to explain, well, how did that work out before we consider other campuses.”
The school board is expected to discuss the school engagement officer proposal at its next regular meeting on September 17th. It could vote on the pilot program then.
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