More Happy Talk From Seattle Schools
Seattle Schools has a Facebook page and, as you might imagine, it's a happy place where only bland announcements are made and good news stories abound. But one SPS reply to a post had me rolling my eyes.
The post was this:
Without a visible presence like guards or weapons detectors, school security does indeed feel performative.
Here's one of the main issues that needs to change:
The state requires all districts to have “threat assessment” protocols, which can range from creating supervision schedules for certain students to removing weapons from their homes. But relying on these plans is a fallacy. The freshman who murdered 17-year-old Ebenezer Haile in the halls at Ingraham High was a known threat — he’d brought weapons to school only a month before. Clearly the safety plan created for him, if any, was inadequate. As a result, the school district is now facing a $45 million wrongful-death suit from Haile’s family.
Yes, the student at Ingraham who murdered the other student was KNOWN to SPS. My impression is that the district has tied the hands of many principals. It appears that restorative justice may not be the answer for all these issues and frankly, if at student brings a weapon to school, that student should be expelled.
Yup, I said it.
One thing is clear: It is unrealistic and unfair to expect educators to handle this profound social problem on their own. It is bigger than schools, and the mayor and Seattle City Council must sustain their involvement beyond the immediate aftermath of the latest tragedy.
But there are more targeted approaches. Yakima educators, for example, receive reports each morning from city police, alerting them to gang activity or domestic violence that could spread from the community into school hallways.
Yakima also has weapons-detection hardware at one high school, and is spending $1 million for an alert system that gives every adult in every building the power to immediately summon help — including for school lockdowns.
Superintendent Trevor Greene says these measures have made a real difference in creating greater security for students and staff.
Again, yup.
For its part, Seattle Public Schools cannot treat summer vacation as a breather. This is the time to conceive a new approach to security for the 2024-25 school year — even if it costs extra money.
Which swings me back to Jones' remark about a "season" of grief and "a season" to plan. The time is now. It will be interesting in the face of all that has happened, if Jones asks for a raise and the Board gives it to him.
The other article is this on titled - Violence prevention programs in school are one way to keep kids safe, experts say.
Of course, the irony is that Amarr Murphy-Paine was trying to stop a fight and died for his efforts.
“Every time this happens, I feel like I haven’t done enough or we are
too slow,” said Roger Kluck, the director of the Alternative to Violence
Project. Kluck’s program provides a workshop
where students do activities and play games to help build
self-confidence, bond with each other and brainstorm how to solve
problems and understand the underlying causes of violence.
Kluck and other experts said prevention can make a difference for students as they learn to deal with the big emotions that can lead to violence. Ideally, lessons should begin at the start of a student’s education and not as a stopgap measure once students are already in high school or after a tragedy has occurred.
Social-emotional learning programs that teach self-regulation,
problem-solving and communication skills are crucial as early as
preschool and throughout elementary school, said Tia Kim, a
developmental psychologist and a vice president at Committee for
Children, a Seattle-based nonprofit that works in over 45,000 K-12
schools in the country. Research shows these skills foster emotional
safety, which in turn helps reduce violence.
I would agree with the thrust of the article which is to start early and keep the work up all through high school.
Remember that City money for mental health? Here are some answers that raise questions:
Citing graduation planning and the recent events at Garfield, a spokesperson for Seattle Public Schools was not available to comment on exactly which violence programs are offered at district schools. But Seattle students do get some instruction aimed at teaching conflict resolution skills and social-emotional regulation. The district offers its own programming and several area nonprofits contract with individual schools.
And the city has committed up to $10 million aimed at youth mental health and safety for the coming school year, according to a Friday announcement by the mayor’s office. An initial $2.4 million will go to providing increased access to telehealth therapy services for students, starting this summer.
The Communications Department is too busy to find out what prevention programs are in Seattle Schools? Wouldn't this be a logical question you would know might come from a journalist?
I'm not the only one wondering; I see this called out in the comments.
Educators should also work to develop strong relationships with students and promote a positive school climate to keep students invested in school and away from problematic behavior, Kim said. Involvement in sports, activities and academics also helps keep kids safe.
“High academic performance is typically a really good protective factor to youth violence,” Kim said.
In 2019, the Legislature required that one state-funded professional
development day for educators be focused on social-emotional learning
every other year beginning in 2021.
Comments
SPS Chatter
- Heartbroken Advocate
In a previous post, a faux-concerned sped teacher wrings his hands about the impact of school closures on the disabled students at Graham Hill. The fact is, larger schools are better resourced to have a wider range of services and are MORE equipped to handle students with a wide array of disabilities because they can provide a continuum of alternate placements, meeting the needs of nearly all students with disabilities in a region. That is why all middle and high schools serve nearly all the students with disabilities in their assignment areas. They are bigger. IDEA also requires students attend the same school as their nondisabled peers to the maximum extent possible as well as a continuum of alternate placements. Larger schools makes that more likely. Of course, there are always a very few students with truly unique needs who fall outside the capacity of any continuum and even outside the district’s capacity. The teacher posits that because service delivery is so unregulated and haphazard, that those with disabilities will somehow get the short end of the stick or need special care during closures. The two problems are not related. Haphazard special education with no oversight is indeed a problem, no matter how schools are arranged or closed. Larger schools means oversight is more likely.
Next up, a so-called Heartbroken Advocate asks “what if the shooter had a developmental disability”? Or maybe they meant “what if the disciplined student has a dreaded developmental disability”? What if they did??? Firstly, Developmental Disability is not an IDEA category. So what is HA even talking about? Washington State Division of Disabilities Administration defines Developmental Disability as: “Another neurological or other condition similar to intellectual disability”. So, is he saying the shooters are intellectually disabled? Highly unlikely. Students with intellectual disabilities are generally confined to highly supervised settings similar to preschool classrooms and those are not the students doing the shootings. For a few students with intellectual disabilities who are NOT self-contained… are they the ones with the capacity to obtain weapons, ability to plan, and the ones with the follow through with committing murder? Are they committing murders? Any data on that? Maybe the sniveling advocate is complaining that the intellectually disabled aren’t expelled enough? Research presented by OSPI suggests students with any disability are far more likely to be expelled than others unless they are already confined to a special education self contained classroom (which is really another form of expulsion). Because of the widespread use of suspension and expulsion against students in regular education with disabilities, IDEA now requires manifestation determinations for such district actions. Schools can’t expel their way out of teaching the disabled though they try as hard as they can to do it. And what is the “era of inclusion for all”? Is it a bad thing? All means all, doesn’t it? The reality is, SPS is a highly UNinclusive district even in Washington. There is no era of inclusion in SPS. Heartbroken, get a clue. Intellectually disabled students aren’t the shooters, and they are disproportionately expelled, and they are segregated everywhere you look. But yes, your kid might have to sit next to one, so best to make peace with that.
Old Time Advocate
Old Timer
I bow to your great experience except that my son's is not my only one. I've spoken to so many Special Education parents over the years. I follow the Seattle Special Education page on Facebook so I'm keeping my ear to the ground.
You are certainly entitled to your beliefs, based on your long experience in SPS, but you are not going to discount mine.