District 81 Tries To Make Schools Safer Some Students Will Be Asked To Sign Good-Behavior Contracts

The Golden Rule is coming to Spokane Public Schools.

Posters and bookmarks with the rule - “treat others as you like to be treated” - and more than a dozen other expectations for students will be distributed to all schools this fall.

Some schools also will ask students and parents to sign a “contract for a safe school.” One item on the contract asks parents to keep their guns and weapons “in a safe place.”

The contract, posters and bookmarks are part of a multi-pronged effort to make schools safer.

Schools will be encouraged to distribute specific lists of school rules and consequences for breaking them. Schools will ask students to sign contracts pledging to refrain from harassment, use of drugs and alcohol and bringing weapons to school.

A truancy center and a Secret Witness program at two schools are other results of a year-old school district safety committee’s work.

Rising weapons incidents in schools, truancy and youth violence in Spokane sparked the changes.

“As times change, we change,” said Superintendent Gary Livingston. “We wish we weren’t spending any dollars on security, but I think that’s a head-in-the-sand attitude.”

The district counted 50 weapons incidents in schools during the 1994-95 school year, an increase of 11 percent over the previous year. Those included 10 firearms incidents, 26 knives and 14 other weapons.

Gun incidents increased, rising from six in 1993-94 to 10 in 1994-95.

Spokane Police Chief Terry Mangan talked about plans to attack truancy at a school board meeting Wednesday.

“It’s not going to touch the real hard-core kids involved in the drug and gang culture,” Mangan said. “But we know that’s a small percentage of kids and we want to keep it a small percentage of kids.”

In the anti-truancy program, police will target North Side and downtown shopping areas, looking for kids skipping school. Students will be detained and taken to a central location, called the truancy center. Parents will be called to pick up their children at the center.

Concern that minority students will be targeted has surfaced, said Vickie Countryman, chairwoman of the district’s Affirmative Action Council.

“Will there be checks and balances so students of color are not targeted?” Countryman asked.

Associate Superintendent Cynthia Lambarth said the committee designing the program wants to make sure that won’t happen.

In a groundbreaking project with Secret Witness, Glover Middle School and North Central High School will be the first Spokane schools to offer rewards for anonymous tips on weapons and drugs in schools.

Secret Witness, a project of the non-profit group Crime Check, will take calls from students and parents from the two schools. Rewards from Secret Witness for legitimate tips will be up to $50. No school district money will be used for rewards. Secret Witness will report the information to school officials.

“Students won’t have to put their own safety in jeopardy or wonder, ‘Will someone know if I report this?”’ said Glover Principal Phil Newsum.

Last spring, Mead School District started its own hotline. Mead does not offer rewards.

The Spokane district is taking applications for five unarmed security officers who will work at the high schools. The officers will be trained by the police department and will have limited powers of arrest. They will work on 10-month contracts with a starting salary of $19,424.

In addition, Spokane police will add two neighborhood resource officers next week, making it possible for each middle school in the district to have its own officer.

The neighborhood resource officers are armed, fully commissioned police officers who have offices in the middle schools. They also work out of neighborhood community centers, helping people solve problems ranging from graffiti to drug houses.

The new officers are Sue Mann, a seven-year Spokane police veteran who will work out of Salk Middle School, and John “J.D.” Anderson, who has three years on the force and will work out of Sacajawea Middle School.

The new officers were recommended by neighborhood citizens after interviews with candidates, said Sgt. Dean Sprague, who heads the program.

The other neighborhood resource officers are Tim Conley at Glover Middle School, Duane “Will” Willmschen at Garry, Percy Watkins at Shaw, Bill Schaber at Chase and Rick Albin, who is based downtown and at Lewis and Clark High School.

The officers don’t enforce school discipline, but their presence decreases weapons incidents and violence in schools, Sprague said.

“I know my officers have recovered shotguns about to be used in drive-bys and gotten in the middle of fights,” he said. “The schools love having us around. We can ease some of their burden and that’s good.”

Spokane residents made school safety a prime concern during goal-setting meetings the school board held last year.

“We listened and we’re doing everything we can to make sure when we send kids to school it is a safe environment,” Livingston said.

, DataTimes