Concerned Citizens Support Plan For Security Guard Valley Schools Need Officer, Preferably Uniformed, They Say

More than 200 frightened Spokane Valley residents showed up for a meeting Wednesday night to vent feelings about their children’s safety following a gang-related shooting in their neighborhood.

One woman whose child is in seventh-grade said she’d seen gang graffiti and drug deals happen right outside the school.

Another woman was worried that gangs are waiting to sell drugs to middle school children when they are released for the day.

A man said his 15-year-old daughter was being accosted by a 19-year-old just off school grounds.

The meeting originally was planned to develop a job description for West Valley School District’s new security officer, but took on added significance after three youths were shot Aug. 20 at an intersection just outside the district office.

“We are here to do every possible thing that we can to ensure that your students, our students, are safe,” Dave Smith, superintendent of the district, told the crowd.

“We will not be debating whether we should have a security officer,” he said sternly. “That decision has been made.”

As it turned out, that warning was not needed. None of the people who spoke opposed having security in the schools. Quite the contrary.

“I would like to see a uniformed officer,” one woman said. “Let’s get him uniformed. Let’s have him armed.”

“I think it’s important when someone reacts to a situation, that they stand out,” said Valley resident Bob Closs, who also favors a uniformed officer.

Student leaders oppose that idea, and only recently decided to support having a security officer at all.

“You don’t want to feel scared of someone and feel like there’s a cop going around,” said Jennifer Grizzle, vice president of the student body association. “That would just really intimidate the students.”

In the Aug. 20 shooting, deputies say 17-year-old Jeremy Johnson admitted to firing one shot. Johnson and Torrey Lowery, an 18-year-old who was shot in the chest, attended West Valley High School during part of the last school year.

Police still are looking for two others in connection with the shooting. Johnson has been charged with five counts of first-degree assault.

Several people at the meeting said parents need to take more responsibility for their children’s actions. A representative of the Sheriff’s Community Oriented Policing Effort in West Valley stressed the need for a cohesive community.

“I’ve got the answer for you, it’s involvement,” said Bill Langdon, president of SCOPE West Valley. “Let’s get the community banded together to tell these people we don’t want them around.”

, DataTimes