Seattle schools ponder clear backpacks, required IDs to improve safety

Seattle Public Schools may require high school students to use clear backpacks, wear IDs inside the buildings and remain on campus during lunch as part of a new set of safety and security protocols in the next school year.

Those measures will be in addition to $2 million in new funds the district is allocating to beef up safety and security measures around schools.

These efforts are part of increased security and safety support the district is mulling after the June 6 shooting at Garfield High School, which left 17-year-old student Amarr Murphy-Paine dead.

“Business as usual in the wake of such a tragedy is unfathomable,” Superintendent Brent Jones said in a letter to families and staff on Tuesday.

Jones and district and school leaders will discuss some of the safety proposals over the summer and decide which ones to implement in fall 2024.

SPS will also expand gun violence prevention programs in high schools and ramp up mental health supports for students systemwide, he said.

Since the early June tragedy, the Garfield community has been discussing proposals to ensure students’ safety.

The school’s parent-teacher organization, for example, has floated a pilot program to return school resource officers to the school, along with site-based mental health workers to help students. The district removed school resource officers in 2020 after national protests following George Floyd’s death.

Some Garfield students, in the meantime, have proposed setting up a text-messaging alert system to warn students of danger near campus and employing additional therapists and mental health professionals. The Seattle Student Union, a student activist group which opposes putting police officers in schools, also wants more therapists in the buildings.

“This violence has deeply affected us and re-injured our already grieving community still grappling with the impact of similar acts of gun violence,” Jones wrote. “We are committed to taking concrete steps to enhance the safety of our school environments.”

The district already has a tip line to report threats, which Jones urged the community to use. The number is (206) 252-0510.