Student Sees Need For Tighter School Security Teen Speaks Out At Moses Lake Forum On Youth Safety

Fourteen-year-old Tyson Hintz wants school security officers to get tough on people roaming the halls.

“You can walk around a school all you want without a pass or anything. If you wanted, you could pull out a gun and go in a classroom. It’d be so easy.”

Hintz, speaking at a community forum on youth safety in this Columbia Basin community on Thursday, has good reason to be concerned.

His sister, Natalie, was shot two years ago when classmate Barry Loukaitis walked into her algebra classroom and opened fire. Natalie survived, but a teacher and two other students were killed.

On Thursday afternoon, about 60 people spent 3 hours in a Moses Lake conference room brainstorming ways to make life safer for kids. The meeting is among dozens being conducted this summer across the state.

Gov. Gary Locke and state Schools Superintendent Terry Bergeson arranged the forums, which will culminate in a statewide summit on violence and safety in August.

At the Moses Lake gathering, the discussion kept circling back to schools - perhaps because the crowd was filled with reminders of what youth violence can do to a community.

Scattered through the crowd were Licha Vela, whose son, Manuel, was shot in the neck and died at Frontier Junior High School; Alice Fritz, whose son, Arnold, took a fatal shot to the chest; and Jon Lane, the gym teacher who eventually tackled Loukaitis.

A few feet from the Hintz family sat Terry Loukaitis, who lost his son, Barry, to a lifetime in prison.

Shannon Hintz, Natalie’s mother, said a no-tolerance policy for weapons in schools isn’t enough.

“There’s got to be a no-tolerance policy for bad behavior. It really begins with bad behavior.”

“By the time that kid brings a gun to school, it’s too late,” said Carol Garcia, Manuel Vela’s aunt.

Bruce Curtis, who teaches at Moses Lake Middle School, objected to mixing kids who are known to have violent tendencies in regular classes.

“Why do we have a kid in there who’s diagnosed as a danger? Does that make sense? It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Sheila Godden, who has two daughters attending Moses Lake schools, wants students who make threats expelled immediately.

“I don’t think a kid who does that has a right to come back to school the next day - or ever.”

At the least, students who make threats should be carefully monitored before returning to classes, she said. “Mental evaluation seems like it should be given.”

“But it’s not,” added Steve Chestnut, Moses Lake superintendent.

Licha Vela suggested making schools hard to enter without an identification badge. “I think we should have it closed up, fenced up, where you can’t come in if you don’t have a badge. It’s the only way to be safe.”

Several people agreed schools should inform the public every time a weapon is brought to school.

“It should be freedom of information, not right to privacy,” Shannon Hintz said. “Information is power.”

Other suggestions for getting at the root of violence included monitoring children’s television viewing, emphasizing “quantity time” as well as “quality time” with kids, and planning more social activities for teenagers.

Terry Loukaitis, who sat quietly through most of the meeting, called it a “good start.”

He said he felt compelled to join the other parents.

“I have a deep desire to do what I can to make sure no one has to go through what I … and everyone else has been through.”

TOWN MEETINGS Town meetings are being conducted throughout the state to gather input on making schools and communities safer for children. Several meetings are scheduled for this area: Monday: Othello 9 a.m. to noon, Othello High School library. Tuesday: Spokane, 6-9 p.m., Spokane Community College. Tuesday: Chewelah, 6-9 p.m., City Hall Community Center. Wednesday: Newport, 6-9 p.m., Newport office of the state Department of Social and Health Services. July 20: Curlew, 1-4 p.m., Curlew High School. July 21: Davenport, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Davenport High School.