SEATTLE — Seattle Public Schools may require high school students to use clear backpacks, wear IDs inside the buildings and remain on campus during lunch as part of a new set of safety and security protocols in the next school year.
Those measures will be in addition to $2 million in new funds the district is allocating to beef up safety and security measures around schools.
These efforts are part of increased security and safety support the district is mulling after the June 6 shooting at Garfield High School, which left 17-year-old student Amarr Murphy-Paine dead.
“Business as usual in the wake of such a tragedy is unfathomable,” Superintendent Brent Jones said in a letter to families and staff on Tuesday.
Jones and district and school leaders will discuss some of the safety proposals over the summer and decide which ones to implement in fall 2024.
SPS will also expand gun violence prevention programs in high schools and ramp up mental health supports for students systemwide, he said.
Since the tragedy, the Garfield community has been discussing proposals to ensure students’ safety.
The school’s parent-teacher organization, for example, has floated a pilot program to return school resource officers to the school, along with site-based mental health workers to help students. The district removed school resource officers in 2020.
Some Garfield students, in the meantime, have proposed setting up a text-messaging alert system to warn students of danger near campus and employing additional therapists and mental health professionals.
