SEATTLE — One week after a Garfield High School student was shot while waiting for her bus outside the school, dozens of concerned parents and community members Wednesday afternoon gathered on the adjacent street to demand change to the school’s and city’s safety and security policies.
On each corner of 23rd Avenue and East Jefferson Street, including by the Ezell’s Famous Chicken, protesters carried signs reading “Shots Fired, We’re Tired,” or “report cards” grading Seattle Public Schools as flunking on safety.
“With each shooting, it’s kind of swept under the rug and people forget about it,” said Melanie Skinner, who helped organize the rally and is a parent of a Garfield student. “This latest one really hit close to home because it was a Garfield student, somebody my daughter knows and is friends with. … It’s terrifying.”
Minutes after dismissal on March 13, the 17-year-old girl was shot in the leg while waiting at the bus stop near Ezell’s across from Garfield. The gunfire reportedly came from an SUV traveling south on 23rd Avenue before turning right onto East Jefferson Street. The student was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where she has since been discharged.
The police are still searching for the shooter, whom the victim did not recognize.
Just hours later and about half a mile away, a 37-year-old woman was killed by gunfire. Police do not believe the two incidents are connected.
Skinner said Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, a Garfield graduate, should meet with the school community after a shooting nearby. She also wants the city to close 23rd Avenue from Cherry Street to Alder Street during the hour after dismissal.
Other parents said they would like the district to provide funding for constant security around the school.
The district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Skinner’s daughter, senior Fiona Real, said her “heart just dropped” when she heard about the shooting, which happened while she was at home. Real, who played sports with the victim, said she has felt more hyperaware and worried since the shooting.
“This ongoing cycle, I want it to stop,” Real said.
Seattle police said they would enhance patrols near the high school after the shooting, but parents said Wednesday they worry about what will happen after that ends.
After several shootings near the school last year, Seattle Schools contracted for additional security outside Garfield and neighboring Nova High School for a week, with additional support from the district’s safety and security team. Seattle police also did more patrol in the area then.
Team members from Community Passageways, a Seattle nonprofit that works toward zero youth incarceration, were patrolling near the school in neon vests Wednesday afternoon. CEO and founder Dominique Davis said the team plans to continue patrolling outside Garfield and wants to work toward having a larger presence.
“[Students and parents] need to feel a sense of security and safety,” Davis said. “They need to see us out here on these corners. They need to understand that there’s people out here that really care about this community and that we are going to stand in this space to be a safety net for these young people and for the families.”
Kenneth S. Trump, a national school safety and emergency preparedness expert, said incidents outside of schools near dismissal time have become more frequent in recent years, particularly in urban school districts.
“It’s an issue where the neighborhood conflicts spill over into schools, school conflicts spill over into the neighborhoods,” Trump said.
Kimberly Larson said her son, a junior, in October watched a gunman driving by shoot into the air several times. At the same time, her daughter, a freshman, was inside the school and called her mom while running through the hallway to shelter in place, Larson said, choking up at the memory.
Wednesday was the first day either of her kids had gone back to school since last week’s shooting.
“Whether it be a mall or a movie theater or a grocery store or a concert or going to class or walking down the street, it’s happening in our country,” Larson said. “Specifically as far as being a student, my kid is totally spot on that I have no idea what it’s like. It’s a blessing that I won’t ever know that, but it’s really messed up that they do.”
