Are Schools Safe in Seattle?

 The Seattle Times commissioned a poll on school quality and school safety. It's was taken of 500 Seattle residents which I find a bit odd given there could be many who have never had kids in SPS nor been in a school in years.

Quality

So for quality about 37% said Excellent/Good and only 9% said Poor and 26% were Undecided. So where does that leave Fair (26%) - leaning to the good or leaning to the bad?

Superintendent Brent Jones had this to say:

Jones was pleased with those results.

“We typically hear about the challenges of Seattle schools and where we’re deficient,” Jones said. “Hearing that … most of the people feel that they are getting a solid experience from Seattle Public Schools, that’s something we already knew. To hear that from a poll — that’s great.

What the Superintendent leaves out is the enrollment numbers dropping may mean people are voting with their feet.

The poll showed a strong correlation between how people feel about living in Seattle and what they think of the quality of education. Of those who rated Seattle as a poor place to live, 48% also thought the schools provided a poor education. The 48% of those who said it was an excellent place to live also said the schools provided either an excellent or good education.

Safety

With 66%, schools are deemed safe, while 24% said they are not and 10% were undecided. (I do wonder about the use of undecided versus possibly using "unsure.")

The poll found younger respondents were the least confident in safety at schools. Of those between 25 to 34 years old, 57% said Seattle schools were generally safe. Among those who are 55 to 64 years old, 77% said schools were safe. Numbers dropped back down to 57% for respondents who were 65 and older. 

According to the poll, 71% of parents with more than one child thought schools were safe, compared with 58% of those with just one child. 

About 51% of those who rated the quality of education as poor didn’t think schools were generally safe. Conversely, 82% of those who rated the education as good and 97% of those who rated it excellent said schools are generally safe. 

 Superintendent Jones sure had a variety of statements to make:

"...safety for the district’s 50,000 students “is top of mind every day,” and that fear of violence “takes a toll on our students. This takes a toll on our staff. It’s heartbreaking. It’s unacceptable.” 

If it is unacceptable, why did it take so long to actually do anything or reach out to Ingraham parents? 

It’s important for students and staff to feel “not just physical safety but identity safety, safety for who they are, a sense of belonging,” Jones said. 

The superintendent wasn’t satisfied with 65% of respondents rating the schools as safe. “Until we get that number all the way to 100%, our students are not in a fully welcoming environment. That is a goal for us.”

Wait a minute. So Jones is expanding the "safety" at schools to include identity safety. That is definitely important but it allows him to deflect from talking about violence at schools.

After the Ingraham shooting, Jones made promises to review and update safety measures. He was criticized for not updating the community on changes that were made, and not reporting the results of safety reviews.

Jones acknowledged the rift in communication.

“We’re not in the business of trying to take credit for all the things that we’re doing,” Jones said. “Frankly we had our heads down — we’re doing so many things. We just didn’t do the marketing around what we did and so I think that has been fairly critiqued as lack of communication.” 

Didn't do the marketing? It's not presenting a box of cereal; it's keeping in touch with a frightened and grieving community. I find that appalling but, after yesterday's Ad Hoc Committee meeting, I'm not surprised that's how he thinks.

Safety in and around schools is a community and regional issue, Jones said. And it’s going to take partnering with the city leaders, police and community organizations to make schools safer, he said.

“We are not safety experts, but collectively we can create a safe ecosystem,” Jones said. “We’re reliant on partners, and we don’t have all the answers.”

I agree that the community and the larger society are issues that SPS cannot control for but  it would be great if the Board and the Superintendent would advocate for strong gun regulation.