TONIGHT AT 5:30PM: KIRO 7 investigates slow rollout, gaps in Seattle school safety plan

SEATTLE — Two and a half months after Seattle announced a $14.5 million plan to make schools safer, KIRO 7 is investigating what the city and Seattle Public School have accomplished so far.

But we discovered it’s taking a while to get several initiatives rolling. There are gaps the district needs to address. And some parents say they feel left out when it comes to building safer school communities.

“This is a crucial time for Garfield… we’re really trying to rebuild all around losing Amarr,” Appollonia Washington, who has a son at Garfield High School, said.

The Garfield High School community is still hurting after the tragic shooting death of Amarr Murphy-Paine in June.

Garfield is not the only high school part of the city’s new safety plan.

KIRO 7 obtained SPD data that the city used to choose the five high schools and six middle schools in the plan. It shows the juvenile violent crime from last school year at or within a 5-minute walk of each school.

Franklin High School had the highest number of total juvenile crimes with 26. Rainier Beach High School was after it with 17, then Garfield with 11, Ingraham with 9, and Chief Sealth with 8.

But the rankings shift when it comes to juvenile shots fired incidents.

Rainier Beach had 4. Garfield had 3. Chief Sealth had 2. The other schools recorded 0.

As part of this plan, the district said these five high schools and six middle schools-- Aki Kurose, Washington, Denny, Mercer, Robert Eagle Staff, and Meany-- are going to get more mental health support.

But KIRO 7 discovered a new telehealth provider hasn’t been chosen, even as the plan set aside $2.4 million to “expand access to telehealth therapy services to over 2,000 students.” The district said it’s allocated $400,000 to expand the current telehealth contract through the end of the year.

Dozens of mental health care therapist and care coordinator roles aren’t filled yet.

The district says it hasn’t spent much of the $2.3 million set aside for “enhancing its safety personnel framework” because it’s still in the “early hiring stages of safety and security positions.”

And it hasn’t decided how much money to put in a new Family Resource Fund to help students and their families at the highest risk of gun violence.

Parents with the Garfield PTSA told KIRO 7 that they want to hear from SPS about the progress it’s making so families can tell the district if they believe it’s moving in the right direction.

“Student surveys, are we doing any of those kinds of things to check in periodically with the kids?” asked Alicia Spanswick, PTSA co-president and parent of two kids at Garfield. “I would love some kind of dashboard or a newsletter that’s like, ‘This is what we’ve done so far. This is what we still need to do.’”

The Mayor’s Office called the plan a three-pronged strategy, with law enforcement as the third prong. The city said officers would patrol at the high schools before and after school and during lunch when staffing is available, but the public knows SPD staffing is low.

So the question remains - how successful is that part?

In an investigation airing tonight at 5:30 p.m., KIRO 7 discovered a big gap in that area.

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