Troubling Safety Issues Around Some Schools

Over the last week there have been some troubling incidents around two of our high schools, Roosevelt and Garfield. 

Sometime last night or early this morning, a man was beaten to death just blocks from Garfield High School.

Last weekend, there were several incidents right by Roosevelt including Bellevue police using a compression bomb to get into a house to make an arrest and two armed robberies.   (This is also near my house which makes it doubly scary.)

I reported these crimes to the Board and Dr. Enfield.  She promptly wrote me back voicing her concern and said that she was having a meeting with Councilman Burgess this week and would bring it up with him.  (He is the chair of the Public Safety committee which also oversees education and, of course, is a former cop.) 

I don't know what the answer is - more police patrols around schools after dark or alerting the kids to be watchful at their school after dark - but it is troubling. 

Comments

Anonymous said…
The Roosiehood blog had this update on one of the incidents:

I called the police Friday AM and they told me the explosions were some sort of compression bombs that were launched by the Bellevue police to flush someone they had a search warrant for out of one of the Sisley properties. Seattle police were aware of the situation.

The notorious Sisley properties...

The armed robberies occurred around 1 AM and 4 AM.

neighbor
9/22/11, 9:49 AM
Anonymous said…
We've been experiencing this sort of "after-hours" violet crime in the neighborhoods surrounding RBHS for a number of years now (much worse then when I first moved here 19 years ago). The bus-stop at Rainier and Henderson (very close to RBHS and a Metro stop for southend kids going to other schools) is one of the most dangerous in the city.

SolvayGirl
9/22/11, 9:57 AM
Anonymous said…
Of course that's "violent" crime....thoughs ome may be violet too...

SG
9/22/11, 9:57 AM
Melissa Westbrook said…
This is one area the City, which has no governance power, can help the district. If there are issues in the areas surrounding our schools, they need to be aware and try to have police be more watchful.
9/22/11, 11:17 AM
south guy said…
Fortunately the crimes you mention occurred in the middle of the night or early morning. While terrible and regrettable, they don't really affect the students who are there during the day, unless parents decide that they make the entire area so dangerous they will not allow their kids to even go there at any time.

The irony is that no matter what neighborhood blog you read,there are always complaints about the terrible crime and how there's a "most dangerous corner" in Seattle nearby. And no matter what, commenters always fault the city for not doing enough.
9/22/11, 11:52 AM
Melissa Westbrook said…
I'm not faulting the city; there is crime and problems from that in every big city.

But the City is always looking to help schools and this is one way they could.

(That said, it would also help if they would crack down on the Sisley properties in Roosevelt but that doesn't happen often. And yes, I believe this uptick in crime in that area has everything to do with those properties.)
9/22/11, 1:23 PM
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
9/22/11, 7:19 PM
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