Seattle Schools Community Forum

From the West Seattle blog; Two eighth-grader girls from Denny International Middle School say older boys/men “grabbed and pushed” them on Monday. That’s according to this letter just sent to Denny and Chief Sealth International High School families by Denny principal Jeff Clark (who shared it with WSB) and Sealth principal Aida Fraser-Hammer :

This weekend we learned of yet another shooting in the south end right outside of Garfield High School. One boy was killed and one was wounded and made it into the Garfield Teen Life Center. The police have not yet said it is gang-related although the case has been assigned to the gang unit. Here is an article from the Times. There are so many deeply disturbing elements to this story that overlap with other stories. The wounded boy in this case will not talk to the police. From the article: "Meanwhile, parents and neighbors are concerned about a rash of some 30 assaults and thefts that have occurred near Garfield since the school reopened this fall after a two-year renovation. Those incidents, not all of which have been confirmed by police, were discussed at a meeting of the East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition on Oct. 23." A girl who earlier this year attended Ingraham High School (her mother pulled her out because of gang threats) was murdered in early October and...

I had heard about these incidents at and around Roosevelt and now they made the news in today's PI. There has been an uptick in crime around Roosevelt, mostly robbery with assault. Only one incident that I know of happened near the school on the sidewalk outside the school grounds. (Interestingly, my co-president witnessed it - she knew the student since he was in kindergarten - and rushed to try to help. I myself stepped in to break up an assault at our get-ready day at Roosevelt between two girls at the start of school. Those of you who know me know I'm pint-sized and yet I was surprised at the number of adults who praised me and yet said they wouldn't have stepped between the two girls. I get that I could get hurt but who is going to intervene if adults don't? That said, I would likely only call 911 or shout at attackers on the street because of the possibility of a weapon being involved.) I give our principal, Brian Vance, props for sending home information ...

Hello I know many of you are dying to comment on this. I have to say that I don't know anything more than what I have read in the paper. I don't know if there is going to be a meeting about it and even if there is, I'm sure privacy laws are not going to allow much detail to be shared. If I find out anything I will be sure to post. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/380680_rainierbeach26.html

The PI has been running a two-part series on young men and gangs throughout the region. In the second part published today, they examine the scattershot approach across the board from public entities. There was also a sobering letter to the editor about the first part of this series which I believe reflects how many people feel (frustrated). From the article: "Common wisdom holds that kids involved with gangs are long gone from school, unseen and vanished into street life. But James, a sophomore at Cleveland High last year, would disagree. To him, they were everywhere, congregating in the halls, getting high just outside the building, urging him to step into their circle. At 16, he loved sports - track, in particular - and while he clearly feared parental wrath, he could not help pulling away from a mother frantic to keep him safe. Almost from the day school began last fall, James was torn between worries about where gang life might lead and his equally powerful wish to j...

As my son would say - are you serious? Another alleged assault at a Seattle public school (this time Aki Kurose) and the staff "can't reach" the police because they used the non-emergency call number? This story appeared in today's PI. From the story: "During an interview in a school office on June 12, the girl told a police officer that a former classmate she saw in a second floor hallway lifted his shirt and displayed what appeared to be a pistol tucked into his waistband. The 13-year-old boy -- who police said the girl later identified as an Aki Kurose student -- ordered her into the boys' restroom and pushed her into a toilet stall, according to the report. A teacher who came into the restroom took them both to the office, where the girl told about being sexually assaulted. The staff member told police the girl didn't show emotion. The teacher told police after learning what was being reported, he returned to the bathroom and found a toy gun -- ...

Are you kidding me? Another molester in SPS gets sentenced? This article appeared in the PI today. This particular useless bit of human flotsam was quite the operator. Here's a guy - a former police chief from a small Eastern Washington town - who comes to Seattle to be a PE teacher. I'm pretty sure the district probably was quite happy to have him. (He worked first at BF Day and then Rainier View.) A friendly fellow, he ran an after-school ballroom dancing class. But he fixated on a group of sisters from an immigrant Cambodian family where mom didn't speak English. And he groomed those girls (and buttered up the mom) and then molested them. BF Day officials reprimanded him for this unseemly relationship. But he continued the relationship with the girls (unknown if the school knew this) but gets accused of molesting his own granddaughter. But the parents of his granddaughter didn't want a trial and let him plead to a lesser charge. Okay, but during th...

Probably because the PI had an editorial a couple of days ago about the whole situation at Broadview-Thompson over the teacher abusing children, there were a number of letters to the editor. All were in the vein, " Why weren't (aren't) the principals/administrators involved being held accountable?" It's a fair question; if ever there was bad judgment used, it's here. From a letter by Dan Reeder: " The district's response? Mandate staff training about 'reporting suspected abuse.' According to your article, at least 15 teachers and staff members made at least 30 reports to the principal and assistant principal of the school about the sexual misconduct. Sounds to me like staff members already know how to report." There was a long letter from former SEA president, John Dunn, who said: "And yet, the article goes on to say that two of the school administrators accused of failing to act on warnings about the perpetrator's behavio...

So back in September 5 members of the Garfield football team allegedly engaged in not one but two muggings (and I say mugging and not robbery because they allegedly assaulted both victims). Some of the boys were starters on the team. They were caught because a couple of people saw the second robbery and reported their license plate number. When apprehended (on the football field), most confessed (this is according to an article in the PI). Now I had heard about it when it happened and assumed that the school had dealt with them in some manner (off the team?suspended from school?). Watching the news last night, there's Ted Howard, the principal, saying they were benched for 2 games and "need our support". Hello? Football players get benched for mouthing off at the coach or missing practice, not assaulting and robbing people. And what about the kids at school? Would you feel your student is safe at school with these guys around? I wouldn't. Yes, they are innoce...

I am intrigued by Board President Cheryl Chow's idea that we don't need to report crime in our schools, we only need to provide students and families with safety tips. --see this story in the Seattle P-I-- " To School Board President Cheryl Chow, it's not just a matter of timing -- she doesn't really see the point in providing crime data on individual schools. "I don't know if that would be helpful," she said, adding that it would be more beneficial to provide parents with safety tips to share with their children . " So that got me thinking about safety tips for schoolchildren and what they might be. I thought of some serious ones ("Auntie Cheryl sez: Keep your head and limbs inside the bus") and some less likely but equally useful ones ("Auntie Cheryl sez: When being kicked by a gang of thugs, roll yourself into a tight ball to protect vital organs; keep your feet tucked up tightly to protect genitals") I thought other folks...

This article (on the front page, unfortunately for SPS) appeared in the PI today about the efforts by parents of a Hale student who had been attacked last spring by some other students because he reported being robbed by them earlier in the year. I had actually heard about this case from a friend with a student at Hale. My friend said what the parents reported in the newspaper; namely, that the previous principal (now gone, thank goodness) had not been helpful to the parents. It's troubling that the kid got robbed in the first place but to get beaten up for being a "snitch" brings it to another level of fear for that student and any others who know about it. A good perspective from the article: "Hale's Principal Marni Campbell, who took over the post this fall, is sensitive to the Sheas' case. She's developed a safety plan with the family, and the district has agreed to her request to assign extra security specialists to the school in the short term. ...

There were two articles, one in the PI and one in the Times, about violence in SPS schools not being reported to police. (My public disclaimer is that neither of my sons have ever experienced any violent behavior in any of their schools. That has not been true for all their friends.) First, it seems that the District does NOT keep track of the records of violent behavior/incidents in any coherent fashion. Could be by design or by ineptness. (I had been looking into getting back the police officer who had previously been assigned to Roosevelt High School and had spoken to the head of security for the District, trying to get a read on what schools do have officers assigned to them. He didn't know which schools had officers, didn't know who used to or how it came about. I was unimpressed to say the least.) The District, obviously, doesn't like this kind of information getting out there. Well, they do have 47,000 students throughout the city, in all age ranges and ba...

I had read about this incident a couple of days ago and wasn't going to post on it but now a criminal investigation has been launched and the boys expelled (somewhat after the fact). Basically a girl alleges that a boy was harassing her during class (verbally and putting hands on her), that the class ended and he followed her into the hall, continuing the harassing and finally pulling her into a boys' bathroom where he assaulted her while another boy stood guard. It was reported to the school later that day by the girl and an unnamed adult. The school did not notify the police and it is unclear if they told the district. The boys were initially expelled for 3 days. The district has clear-cut rules on criminal behavior and yet the principal did not call the police. Of course, the girl and her family could have but may have thought telling the school administration would trigger that. What is also odd is that when the boy touched her in class, why didn't she go to her...