After a year of high-profile incidents, including two where students were shot just outside Garfield High School, change to the current crime prevention policy would seem inevitable. Just a few years ago, a spike in crime would have resulted in an enlarged police presence and not much else. Now, the response is much different.
Due to a shift in ideas about how to solve crime, a lack of police availability, and general budget issues across agencies, the solutions being looked at now are relatively budget-friendly, and less police intensive. “We’re investing approximately $5 million in… community-based solutions,” Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell touted at a Garfield community public safety forum. “By that, I mean we are having people [at various city departments] go to find out who the shooters are, where are they coming from, why are they doing what they do. Is it retaliation? Is it trauma?”
Seattle’s Department of Education and Early Learning is tackling the root causes of crime that have already been found. “One thing that we’ve been doing in our department is making sure we support access to early learning,” the Director of the Seattle Department of Education, Dwane Chappelle said. “The promise of [higher] education, through the Seattle Promise program… that’s something that’s very keen to me and we know is very beneficial.” The correlation between programs mentioned by Chappelle and economic outcomes which prevent crime is strong. “Those who participate in preschool programs have better life trajectories,” Chappelle said.
There is still a push for more security presence from the mayor and other community members, since community-based solutions may not protect students in the short term. Garfield itself had a school resource officer until the school board controversially removed them in light of citywide protests, though bringing them back could be just as controversial. “I would love to have officers in the schools befriending students. There’s been a push to keep officers outside of the school because of a lot of what they’ve seen; since the [George] Floyd protests, officer trust has been down,” Harrell said. “So as we speak, I’m having conversations with the school district, and I want to have conversations with the student bodies to see if this is something they’d be interested in.”
Violence is coming from the community to the school and much of it is not caused by students. The school relies on the city, SPS, and other governmental bodies to prevent violence through programs like those that Mayor Harrell touted. “Our district has expressed that [we need more support] and I think that [governments are] trying to do the best that they can to control any violence in our city,” Garfield Principal Dr. Tarance Hart said. “I think that they’re trying, but I think we need more.”
While other administrations work on preventing crime, Garfield’s focus is on what to do when crime inevitably happens. “We can’t change what people do outside. We can’t. The people who want to shoot, [there’s] very little that we can do as a school to prevent [them],” Hart said. “What we can do is tighten how we respond to those so that we’re all on the same page and when everybody hears that announcement, everybody knows what to do during shelter in place, everybody knows what to do in lockdown.”
Lockdown procedures have changed and become much more effective for example: “we are a little bit more accurate in terms of [knowing] where our kids are at. It’s not perfect because not everybody, as always, follows procedures, but in general, it’s better,” Vice Principal Jannette Manuel said. “We’ve revised the evacuation routes, we’ve streamlined it; but again, our students in general tend to be lackadaisical about procedures, because they think it’s a drill. I wish our students and our teachers would take it a little bit more seriously in terms of what we need to do.”
Student input is vital to making procedures, policies and programs better, however students are not often included in the school safety conversation. “We’re not doing enough, I’ll be candid with you,” Harrell said. “I would ask that your student leadership contact our office and we’d love to improve on it. I think that’s a rich opportunity we could pursue…I want to model what a good relationship between the school, the students and the city can look like right here at Garfield.”
Programs like the Associated Student Body (ASB), the Seattle Youth Commission (SYC), and the Seattle School Board’s student member program were made to allow students to give input, but results vary. ASB for example, hasn’t been able to process student concerns as it should. “Anything that has to do with students [should be] funneled through ASB and ASB [should] communicate to the adults in the building,” Manuel said. “I can tell you, just having been in the building for this long, [ASB] is not what it used to be [at Garfield].”
Everyone agrees that students should speak up about their concerns regarding safety. You can do that by running for student government (and advocating for better student government), applying for positions on the SYC and student board member program when available, and most importantly, staying informed on city events and showing up to give input directly to policymakers for programs like the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan. For all the efforts touted by the city, by SPS, or by school admin, only one thing matters: will they be effective?

Graphics from Seattle.gov