Student Led Panel at Roosevelt High School Focuses on School and Community Safety

Reporting by Cesar Canizales

It was an evening of strong opinions on what to do about violence at Seattle schools during a student-led discussion at Roosevelt High School on the second day of Black Lives Matter at School Week.

“There is no system of police that is not racist. There is no institution of police that is not racist. That is not classes, that is not ablest,” said Alexis Mburu, a Foster High School Senior.

Natalya McConnell, a Franklin High School junior who founded the Seattle Student Union, said the system needs to be torn down.

“You can't fix a broken system. You get rid of it. And that's what we need to do with police. We get rid of them. And we've done that,” McConnell said, referring to getting rid of officers at local schools.

Held three months after the fatal shooting of a student at Ingraham High School, Tuesday’s panel was made up of students from several area high schools and middle schools, a social worker and a retired school security specialist.

The forum was titled “Counselors, not Cops,” and it began with a history of police in schools delivered by teacher and Black Lives Matter activist Jesse Hagopian. 

“It's just simply astounding to me that we could be in a city that wants to refund the police and defund our schools. Right. They want to close school programs,” Hagopian said. “At the same time, they want to work to add money to the police budget. For some, the answer to every problem is more police.”

Most of the panelists voiced their support to increase the number of counselors at schools, especially in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and the multiple police killings of Black people across the nation, both of which impacted the mental health of young people. What was clear for most of them is that more police is not the solution.

“I don't know how you're going to tell me after the killing of Tyree Nichols, George Floyd that you want black and brown students to walk into a school with a police officer right after those killings,” said Miles Hagopian, a Mercer Middle School 8th grader.

Chelsea Gallegos, a former social worker at Rainier Beach High School and current therapist at Franklin High School, said most students don’t feel comfortable with police around. 

“I don't see police as part of a school safety plan because our kids are not criminals.”

Marta Sisay, an Ingraham High School junior, said it’s hard to trust the police.

“When there are police in the school, you don't know their intention. There are bad cops out there and you don't know what they're going to do. And I think that's just going to increase violence and make the students of color feel unsafe,” said Sisay.

Speaking about the shooting at Ingraham High School in November, McConnell said having a cop at the school during that tragedy would have made matters worse. 

“If a cop had been there, that cop would have heard the gun, seen the shooting, ran up with their gun and shot a second student. So we would have two students dead,” McConnell said.

Daleceana Fudge-Minnie, a Rainier Beach High School student who participated in two town halls on gun violence at her school in January, had a slightly different opinion on the matter. 

“I can't sit here and say that I don't want the police at my school. Because I do. Because at the end of the day, they're the only one that can do something if danger comes,” said Fudge-Minnie. “Because I would much rather have the police do something than a child, as a child having a gun in their hand is a lot more dangerous than a policeman.”

Retired school security specialist Michael Dixon spoke about the need to create community and build trust between students and school security. 

“I learned, you know, as a Black Panther to serve my community, serve everybody in my community,” said Dixon. “And you need more security. You don't need more guns. You need more people talking to the students so you can find out where the guns and knives are. That's how you get rid of the guns and knives. You don't call the cops. You talk to the students. If the students trust you, they'll tell you where they are.”

Sarah Wilhelm, a public health professional and the parent of two Seattle public school students, attended the discussion and said afterwards that she was inspired by the students and their opinions. She also had strong thoughts about the role of police.

“It is counterintuitive to me that you would consider an institution that is built upon the premise of violence to be one that could ensure safety for children in particular—children whose minds are not fully formed. I think what was articulated in this panel is a great example of that. All of our children deserve the opportunity to explore their own ideas and form their own opinions.”