Words and Video by Cesar Canizales

It was an emotional night at a packed townhall at Rainier Beach High School, as students voiced their concerns, fears and what they need to feel safe from the rash of violence in their neighborhoods and in school.

Former student Sunrise talked about what it’s like to live in an area where she doesn’t always feel safe. 

“Why should I have to be in a place to be safe. Why can’t I be outside and be in the open and know that nothing is going to happen to me? Or I don’t need to duck if there’s a car going by too fast,” Sunrise said.

The panel was made up of students, former students, and a parent who has seen the tragic devastation of the violence over the years.

“I worked in this community for 19 years, and in that time, I’ve buried 16 kids. Of those 16 kids that I buried, only two of them did not go to Rainier High School,” said Ms. Jones, who spoke about the violence. “Out of the other 14, only two graduated from here, and the rest of them got kicked out. That says to me that when we kick them out, we kick them into the streets, and they don’t always make it.”

 

Some of the students talked about how their school is neglected in budgeting decisions, especially when they saw what happened in the aftermath of a fatal shooting at Ingraham High School in November.

“They got 25% of $4 million. Do you know how much Rainier Beach can use that $4 million? Forget that! Rainier Beach had to fight for their new school,” said Yousef, who is a Rainier Beach graduate. “They had to fight for that.”

One of the student panelists talked about a recent threat that thankfully did not materialize, but it instilled fear in him.

“My teammates had sent a screenshot from one of the teachers, and it said like, you know, around 11:30, 11:45 there was going to be a shooting at lunch with an AK-47 and all—they even listed the gun. Just with that, I already feel unsafe,” said Mario Clark, a Rainier Beach senior. “Just to hear that, coming from my own community, and being a student athlete, trying to stay on the right path, that’s hard to hear, and it’s hard to go through. And it’s hard to keep my mind focused on what I have to do because I shouldn’t have to come to school with fear.”

There were no representatives from the Seattle Police Department to listen to the students, which did not go unnoticed. 

“The police isn’t here tonight, and that’s kind of a shame because I was at the last townhall and there were a couple of those,” said Rainier Beach senior Caleb, who was a panelist. “But now that the youth is here, and we can actually have the microphone, they don’t want to hear our part.” 

Michael Bethea, Rainier Beach High School basketball coach, said the police are needed in the area. 

“At the Rainier-Garfield game, I ran into four policemen, three of which went to Rainier Beach High School. We have to do something about getting those police back into our own community, because this is their community,” said Bethea. “The problem we have is that they’ve taken all the police who were in our community and moved them up north. And the guys who were up north, they’ve brought them down south. It needs to be addressed.”

Freshman Koodzi Ross listened to his classmates speak and was glad the townhall was student-centered. He said he’d like to see funds distributed more equitably, especially after seeing what happened after the shooting at Ingraham High School.

“One shooting brought $1 million to them, and we’ve been having shootings for years, and barely any money has been brought to Rainier Beach,” said Ross.

Josai Isabell, a freshman at the school, said he liked what he heard from his fellow students, especially because he’s not always comfortable walking outside of school.

“I feel safe like   around Rainier Beach, but when I go to lunch, I feel like I shouldn’t have to pray that I’m going to come back to school because of all the stuff that happens outside of school,” said Isabell.

Rainier Beach principal Ivory Brooks listened to the students and said he’s hopeful about what he heard.

“This is our future, right. This is the future of Seattle. The future of the Rainier Beach community. This is the future of the nation, the future of the world,” Brooks said. “We need to pour more into the youth. We need to listen to the youth. The youth are our future.”

Seattle City Councilmember Tammy Morales attended the townhall and afterwards talked about steps the council can take to bring the community together.

“Some of the specific things I heard tonight, you know, for example, late nights back at the RBCC [Rainier Beach Community Center], reinstituting programming,” said Morales. “A lot of the young people who were on the panel are athletes, and they were saying there’s a lot we have access to, but if you’re not a student athlete, there aren’t a lot of options for after-school programming, for late-night programming, so I think there really is a call for us to assess what are community centers are able to do.”