Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update: Today we find out why Jones put out such a generic "plan." Apparently, he was waiting for his press conference with the Mayor. Oh. From the Seattle Times: The city and Seattle Public Schools announced approximately $14.55 million in funding Thursday to boost safety and security measures and expand mental health support for students before the new school year. The investment includes $12.25 million from the city and $2.3 million from SPS. While some of the investments and support will be available and visible when school starts Sept. 4, others will roll out during the year.   Details: The city’s intervention efforts will focus on 11 middle and high schools with the highest rates of violence inside and around the building perimeter, Harrell said. The schools are Rainier Beach High, Garfield High, Chief Sealth International, Franklin High, Ingraham High, Aki Kurose Middle, Washington Middle, Denny International Middle, Mercer International Middle, Robert Eagle S...

Folks, the terrible scandal coming out from Garfield High School about the girl who was repeatedly raped at different times by two different basketball coaches starting in 2017 gets more terrible by the day. I am going to put up the latest news on it but I am trying to create a timeline and a good, factual and complete narrative on this story.  I first need the SPS investigation report. I did ask SPS public disclosure for it but when I can get it is unknown. The Times and KUOW have stuck with the story and here are their updates. The Times: - A lawsuit has been filed naming Seattle Schools and, apparently, Board director Michelle Sarju. I have not seen the filing yet. The details are horrifying and the manipulation of this girl by two predators made my blood run cold. “At every turn, SPS failed in its most fundamental and basic duties and permitted one of its own special needs students to become the victim of extreme sexual exploitation by multiple authority figures at the school,...

Basically, the Times said the district can't manage its money. It can't keep up enrollment (and doesn't even try to).  But worst of all, SPS doesn't know how to keep kids safe. From the editorial: This paralysis cannot be awarded any grade other than a massive “F” for the adults running SPS, the Seattle Police Department and City Hall. No question, the school district is fielding a crush of high-level problems, including a $104 million budget deficit and a list of some 20 schools that could be slated for closure. But the safety of students is a nonnegotiable, a basic standard that must take priority. Merely writing that sentence is absurd; it should go without saying.   Yet, not even the seven members of Seattle’s School Board have any idea what will look different when students return on Sept. 4 — if they do. Then the editorial gets into a deeper dive pertaining to Garfield High School where there has still has not been an arrest in the murder of Amarr Murphy-Paine on ...

To national news from the Chalkbeat Blog , a story about Democratic VP candidate (and former teacher), Tim Walz. Tim Walz helps Democrats make the ‘prairie populist’ case for public schools The Minnesota governor and longtime high school teacher had just signed into law a bill making school breakfast and lunch free to nearly all children in the state. In the pictures from last year, Walz is surrounded by children who happily embrace him, and he beams with joy. Teachers and teachers unions have embraced Walz as the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee with similar joy. The last major party candidate to previously have led a K-12 classroom was Lyndon B. Johnson . I did not know that LBJ had been a teacher.  This emphasis on resources and social factors outside the classroom sidesteps education issues that have divided Democrats and differs in key respects from former President Barack Obama’s tenure, when Democrats backed education reform policies like merit pay for teachers ...

Update: I meant to include this link to King County's "2024-2029 Public Health Strategic Plan. " Page 21 has a host of both county and state helplines including those for teens. Consider printing out that page and asking your school if it can be posted somewhere if it isn't already.  end of update As I mentioned in Part 1, I see two major overarching issues to trying to help teens with their mental health.  One is what ARE the best things to do to support teens AT SCHOOL. I emphasize that because whether it's district, city, county or state, kids do live a home life that probably has quite a lot to do with how they feel mentally. Naturally, the district does want to know if a student has a difficult home life and can try to support them but no district can do it all. There is NO one change that will truly help. Even if you added two mental health counselors at every high school, you will still miss kids who need help.  Within that question of what to do, we get t...

This is a Seattle teen mental health/teen gun violence story that is still in motion and a bit dizzying at that.  Plus, there is limited knowledge about what actually works for teen violence (short of a gun ban and even then, there's millions of guns in this country.) In a nutshell: After the November 2022 shooting and murder of an Ingraham High School student in the school, the City of Seattle pledged $20M to help SPS with with teen mental health issues. The Seattle Student Union had pushed hard for that amount and it was delightful to see them score this win for their fellow students.  But the bill - so to speak - has come due and now the Mayor and the City Council have scaled way back. I hasten to say there is something of a good reason on the Mayor's part but honestly, it feels like a bait-and-switch and some on the Council just openly don't appear to care.  The Mayor had said he wanted to cut the amount in half. He didn't say where the other $10M will go (the City...

From the Seattle Times: Family of Ingraham student who was killed sues Seattle Public Schools  The mother of a 17-year-old Ingraham High School student shot and killed by another student inside the school in November 2022 filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Seattle Public Schools this week, alleging the district’s negligence led to her son’s killing. Attorneys for Haile’s family filed the complaint Tuesday in King County Superior Court, alleging the school did not adequately protect students from the shooter, who had a known “violent propensity and affinity for guns and weapons” and who had been suspended for bringing weapons to school one month before killing Haile, according to the complaint.  In a statement Thursday, Seattle Public Schools declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, but said the district “generally disagrees with the proposition that the actions of an individual that resulted in a shooting was the fault of the district.”  The di...