Security Ambassadors Will Patrol Lc Corridor
Relocated Lewis and Clark High School students will have a measure of security next fall as they walk the 2-1/2 blocks between their old school and the Holley Mason Building, where most of their classes will be held.
During the two-year renovation of the historic high school, up to 200 students at a time are expected to make the short, daily commute between the two buildings. Physical education, drafting and an English class will still be held at LC.
To make the walk safer, District 81 has arranged with the Downtown Spokane Development Association to extend the Security Ambassadors Program to a six-block grid that includes the two buildings.
Some parents have expressed disappointment that the school has decided not to shuttle students between LC and Holley Mason.
In lieu of busing, the school district will contract two additional security ambassadors to patrol the interschool corridor during school hours. It will cost the district about $70,000 per year. LC Principal Mike Howson said school officials did not investigate the cost of shuttling students.
The ambassadors will provide information and assistance to in-transit students and serve as the “eyes and ears” of the police, radioing in any problems they encounter, according to the contract.
However, the contract stipulates that the ambassadors are not law enforcement officers and will not conduct crime control, drug surveillance or law enforcement.
“They’re kind of like Boy Scouts,” said Security Ambassadors supervisor Terry Lawhead. The ambassadors will intervene in minor situations but otherwise will call the police.
Other security measures the district is taking include lighting the alleys around Holley Mason, monitoring those alleys and the rear entrance of the building with video cameras, and installing an alarm system to protect the facility after hours.
Despite the security, some parents remain concerned.
“It’s kind of a double whammy for new students,” said Phyllis Meyer, whose daughter will be a freshman at LC next year. Freshmen will have to adjust not only to a new school but to a school just that much more urban than LC, she said.
“I just kind of think that everyone needs to have a real heads-up attitude about this,” she said. Of particular concern for Meyer is the traffic.
Students walking between LC and Holley Mason must cross Second and Third avenues, both busy arterials.
Traffic lights change rapidly, and pedestrians frequently jaywalk. Students might jaywalk, too, and with cars rushing by, there is a significant hazard, she said.
School officials agree.
In trial commutes between the two buildings, during which students walked along Howard Street last April, officials explored options for managing how the students travel back and forth, explained LC’s Howson.
Actually, the students seemed to manage the commute quite well on their own, as they already are familiar with the area, Howson said.
“It’s a community our kids deal with all the time,” he said.
The study did reveal some potential problems.
The main concern, Howson noted, is getting students safely through the busy Howard Street intersections at Second and Third avenues.
During between-classes movement between the buildings, the ambassadors will monitor the intersections and place traffic cones to alert motorists to the student crossings, Howson said.
Despite these precautions, parent Gail Tierney would prefer that her daughter, who will also be a freshman next year, didn’t have to walk between the two buildings.
“I’m concerned about my daughter walking down those streets,” she said. “I mean, I work downtown, and I know what goes on.”
With a detox center, convict halfway houses, the Crosswalk facility for troubled youth and numerous transients all near Holley Mason, Tierney is worried that students may be threatened or assaulted by addicts in these programs who have gone back on drugs.
“These are guys who will do anything to get money to shoot up,” she said.
Also, she questions how the school will keep potentially dangerous people from entering the six floors where the school will be situated when Holley Mason has a lobby open to the public.
“Even my daughter made a comment to me, `How am I going to go to the bathroom when someone might be in there?”’
Tierney said LC has a great reputation, and her daughter really wants to attend, but “if I don’t feel it’s safe, she won’t be going there.”
Howson said he respects parents’ desire for safety and pointed out that Holley Mason is actually much less accessible than LC, with only a front and rear entrance, as opposed to LC’s multitude of entrances. A school security officer will be in Holley Mason as well.
School officials will also work to educate students about safety issues, he said.
Still, Tierney would feel better about sending her daughter to LC if the school required freshman and sophomores to take a bus between the buildings, she said.
School officials did consider providing a shuttle for all students but are now planning to provide transportation only for special-needs students.
During the trials, “It took about twice as long to bus as to walk,” Howson said.
And most students surveyed after the April trial said they preferred to walk anyway, he noted.
Finally, with elementary students authorized busing only if they live a mile or more from the school, Howson said he didn’t see how he could justify busing high schoolers less than three blocks.
For Vicki Jones that’s fine. Her son will be a freshman at LC next year. With the Security Ambassadors on the street, she said she feels comfortable with her son walking downtown.
“At age 14, I think he knows his way around,” Jones said.
She said she has been involved, attending meetings and talking with faculty and administrators and is satisfied that the district is making every effort to ensure the safety of the students.
If parents feel good about sending their kids to LC and are sure the safety concerns have been addressed, they can be the school’s biggest ally, Meyer said.
“If we feel comfortable with it, then we can make our kids feel comfortable too.”