New Task Force Will Focus On School Violence 60 People Aappointed Statewide To Study Youth And School Safety

Sandy Brewer was frightened when a teenager threatened to bring a gun to school and kill her 15-year-old son.

And the response from school officials didn’t help: They offered to keep the boys separated.

“I said, ‘No, I won’t send my child back to school,”’ Brewer recalls.

The turmoil ended when the other boy’s parents pulled him from the district. But the incident convinced Brewer, a private investigator in Spokane, that schools are not prepared to handle violent kids.

Now Brewer believes she might have a chance to make a difference. She is among some 60 people appointed this week to a statewide task force to study youth and school safety.

Gov. Gary Locke and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson announced their plans for the advisory group days after a student opened fire in a Springfield, Ore., school, killing two students and wounding 22 others.

Brewer and other members will attend community forums on youth safety, and bring results to a statewide summit Aug. 19 in King County.

“They’ll be the eyes and ears we’re sending out to listen at these community forums,” said Jennifer Wallace, Locke’s education policy adviser.

Locke expects the summit to generate proposals for safety legislation, as well as examine the root causes of violence.

Final recommendations will be shared with community groups and schools before school starts.

Advisory group members from this area include Marilee Roloff, Volunteers of America of Spokane director; John Van Haalen, assistant principal at Mt. Spokane High School; Scott Sines, managing editor of The Spokesman-Review and Ken Sands, assistant city editor of The Spokesman-Review.

Others include Helen Fancher, Grant County commissioner; P.J. deBenedetti, Moses Lake School District communications director; and Alice Fritz, whose son was fatally shot at a Moses Lake school two years ago.

Fifteen-year-old Arnold Fritz was among those killed when a classmate, Barry Loukaitis, shot up an algebra class at Frontier Junior High School.

Defense attorneys said Loukaitis had a bipolar disorder and was delusional at the time of the murders. Prosecution experts contended he had a depressive disorder.

“I’d like to be an advocate for children who are in despair and try to alter things so we’re there for them better in the future,” said Fritz.

“Our sense is the only way to have saved our boy would be to save Barry.”

Brewer, who runs Pinnacle Professional Services, wants to make it easier for students to report weapons spotted in schools. She also wants students who make threats to be forced to undergo psychiatric evaluations before returning to school.

Brewer, who investigates violent incidents at schools, said she’s tired of merely investigating tragedies.

“I’d like to be preventing them. I’m tired of seeing autopsy pictures of kids who have been blown away.”