S2 E1 A New Year for Student Safety

[00:00:00] Christie Robertson: Welcome to Seattle Hall Pass, a podcast with news and conversations about Seattle Public Schools. I'm Christie Robertson.

[00:00:13] Jasmine Pulido: I'm Jasmine Pulido, the Seattle Hall Pass intern. 

[00:00:19] Jane Tunks Demel: And I'm Jane Tunks Demel. And welcome to the very first episode of our second season of Seattle Hall Pass. Hooray!

[00:00:26] Christie Robertson: With the start of the year rapidly approaching on Wednesday, September 4th, we wanted our first episode to be about school safety, which is on the minds of many parents, teachers, and students. Many folks want to know what, if anything, will look different for their students when school starts.

[00:00:42] Jane Tunks Demel: We'll start by reviewing the information we have about which safety changes are coming to Seattle Public Schools this year.

[00:00:48] PRESS CONFERENCE: City & SPS Collaboration

[00:00:48] Christie Robertson: On August 22nd, Mayor Bruce Harrell and Superintendent Brent Jones held a press conference where they outlined large new investments in school safety and mental health support. 

[00:00:59] Jane Tunks Demel: Superintendent Jones emphasized that if students don't feel safe, they can't learn. So, for him, this is really about creating an environment where students can focus on their education. 

[00:01:09] Brent Jones: It's critical that our students and staff feel safe and are safe, so that we can do what we do best at Seattle Public Schools, and that's teaching and learning. We know if students don't feel safe, they cannot learn. That's facts. 

[00:01:24] Christie Robertson: The city and district collaboration has three main components. 

One is school-based measures for mental health supports, 

Two is violence interruption and community partnerships, and 

Three is an increased police presence around school buildings.

So let's break those down, starting with the school-based measures. The statistics that were shared about student anxiety and depression were sobering, as usual.

[00:01:52] Jane Tunks Demel: Yeah, Mayor Harrell said that 50% of 8th graders and 71% of 12th graders report feeling anxious and fearful, and 1 in 3 12th graders report feeling depressed. 

So $5.6 million will go to hiring mental health counselors and care coordinators. This will fund 42 new positions at 21 school-based health centers in middle and high schools.

[00:02:14] Christie Robertson: And I heard them say that the care coordinators are actually a really important part of this to free up some of the counselors from doing the care coordination kind of work, like referrals. Just getting people hooked up to the right services.

[00:02:22] Jane Tunks Demel: $2.4 million will help expand access to telehealth therapy services. The intention is that this will serve about 2,000 students.

[00:02:39] Christie Robertson: The second pillar of the plan is violence interruption. $4.25 million dollars is allocated to fund violence intervention staff who work inside schools and build relationships with at-risk students. Here's Mayor Harrell describing some of this work.

[00:02:56] Bruce Harrell: Now, what does this look like? This looks like funding violence intervention staff... You know, when I use terms like that, “violence intervention staff” to work inside schools - they're going to be inside the schools. We want them to be here. We want them housed here. We're trying to intervene and stop the violence. I also say in the same sentence, we're trying to create love. Okay, we're trying to create relationships, mentorships. We're trying to protect, but we're definitely trying to intervene and stop the violence. 

[00:03:29] Christie Robertson: Harrell also talked about direct support for families.

[00:03:32] Bruce Harrell: We're going to establish a new family resource fund. Quite frankly, that's... those are just dollars. This is a flexible pool of funds designed to support students and their families most at risk of gun violence, participating in case management at focus schools. So this is a tool to provide... to mitigate risk factors for students. It could help with clothing, food, utilities, and transportation. We realize when gun violence impacts a family, it disrupts everything in their life. And so we want to make sure that we have some resources available to that. 

[00:04:04] Christie Robertson: The violence intervention efforts will be directed to five high schools and six middle schools. Here's what Mayor Harrell said about this.

[00:04:14] Bruce Harrell: So we're going to target interventions in 11 particular schools as our initial rollout. And we're currently seeing, in these particular schools, the highest rate of violence in and around the campuses. So the high schools are here - Rainier Beach, Garfield, Chief Sealth International, Franklin, and Ingraham. That's where the data leads us. The middle schools, or the feeder schools, if you will, are Aki Kurose, Washington, Denny, Mercer, Robert Eagle Staff, and Meany. 

[00:04:45] Jane Tunks Demel: And for the third pillar, there will be increased police presence around school perimeters, especially at the start of the school year. Interim Police Chief Sue Rahr emphasized this would be about visibility and building trust, not having a heavy-handed approach.

[00:04:59] Sue Rahr: And I told Dr. Jones right off the get-go, I am here to ask you what you need. 

[00:05:04] Brent Jones: Yes. 

[00:05:04] Sue Rahr: We are not here as a police department to say we're coming in with guns blazing. That is the worst possible way to make the school environment safe. We don't do that. 

We also agree that the most important thing we can do is create trusting relationships. I know that the police have work to do in building those trusting relationships, and this makes me hopeful that we can accomplish that. 

And so that's what we're starting with. The police will be around the school. We will be as visible as we possibly can for the purpose of just letting people know we are here to keep you safe. As the school year goes on and we all get to know one another, I hope that we can continue to build on that trust and build communication because that's how we keep our students safe.

[00:05:54] Christie Robertson: So, we have mental health, violence interruption, and police support. 

Here's Superintendent Jones reiterating some of the changes that we can expect to see at Seattle Public Schools this year.

[00:06:08] Brent Jones: Students may see a police presence around school perimeters, and this is part of strengthening our collaboration between our schools and the police. There'll be regular communication between police and our school leaders. There'll be protection against violence around our schools, and there will be walkthroughs to our schools to ensure emergency preparedness. 

 More counselors, violence interruption specialists, and telehealth providers. We are developing an ecosystem of support. 

[00:06:37] Jane Tunks Demel: It will be interesting to see how they measure the impact of all these new initiatives. The mayor said they'll be tracking things like graduation rates, gun incidents, and how safe students feel.

[00:06:46] Bruce Harrell: We will look at the metrics. Our team are very data-oriented. We'll look at the number of, quite frankly, we even track graduation rates. We try to figure out who's dropping out of school. We try to figure out how many guns are fired, how many guns are retrieved. For me, at the end of the day, in addition to the data, in addition to lives lost or lives saved, which we will measure, as the parent from Garfield said, how do the kids feel? 

[00:07:14] Christie Robertson: In total, the city will invest $12.25 million towards safety measures and mental health resources.

[00:07:21] SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS CONTRIBUTION 

[00:07:21] Jasmine Pulido: Seattle Public Schools will also be contributing to the safety and security cause. Let's look at how their additional $2.3 million will be used. What did Dr. Jones's letter to families say about this Jane?

[00:07:36] Jane Tunks Demel: They're hiring an Executive Director of Student and Community Safety. And as far as we know, this is a new position.

[00:07:44] Christie Robertson: Yeah, I wonder who was doing that work before.

[00:07:47] Jane Tunks Demel: Me too. They'll also be hiring several school security specialists.

[00:07:52] Christie Robertson: The school district also plans to upgrade school infrastructure, including cameras, access control systems, perimeter fencing and gate improvements, and interior classroom door lock enhancements.

[00:08:06] Jane Tunks Demel: Then a major thing that caught my eye is that the district said it would “evolve operations” with the Seattle Police Department. 

[00:08:14] Jasmine Pulido: It sounds like SPS and SPD are using this collaboration as an opportunity to rebuild trust 

In Superintendent Jones’s email to families, he wrote, “The SPS safety and security team is strengthening its collaboration with the Seattle police department to enhance student safety and build trust.”

[00:08:36] Jane Tunks Demel: The letter went on to mention that this collaboration would include maintaining regular communication on safety-related matters and conducting walkthroughs to ensure emergency preparedness. 

[00:08:48] Jasmine Pulido: I think because SPD and SPS weren't in contact for a few years, these walkthroughs weren't happening before.

[00:08:58] Jane Tunks Demel: Superintendent Jones also detailed some school-level efforts. He said that clear backpacks and student identification badges will not be required now, but they are still being considered. Also each high school's administration will decide whether their students can leave campus for lunch or not. 

[00:09:16] Jasmine Pulido: Okay. So that means all together, the city and school district are putting $14.55 million towards safety measures and mental health resources for the upcoming year. 84% of that will come from the city then. And 16% will come from Seattle Public Schools.

[00:09:35] Jasmine Pulido: Let's remember these investments come after several lethal shootings at or near Seattle schools recently, including Amarr Murphy-Paine. Ebenezer Haile and Mobarak Adam, who were students at Garfield High School, Ingraham High School, and Chief Sealth High School, respectively. 

[00:09:56] Christie Robertson: All were teenagers under the protection of Seattle Public Schools and the City of Seattle. 

[00:10:01] Jasmine Pulido: We hope these safety and security measures will create the environment that was described by those who lead us. One where students will not only feel safe to learn, but thrive in the environments they are learning in. And that our school and public leaders will continue to invest in our students’ safety without needing the deaths of our most vulnerable youth to bring these needed actions to light. 

We'll keep following this throughout the year to see how these changes are impacting our families. 

If you're a parent, teacher, or student who has thoughts about this episode or these recent measures, we want to take the time to amplify a variety of community voices around this topic. Please reach out to us at hello@seattlehallpass.org. 

[00:10:42] Christie Robertson: Our show notes are available at seattlehallpass.org. I'm Christie Robertson.

[00:10:50] Jasmine Pulido: I'm Jasmine Pulido. 

[00:10:52] Jane Tunks Demel: And I'm Jane Tunks Demel. We'll be back with more episodes soon, and we hope you'll join us next time on Seattle Hall Pass.