“Her son recently won a settlement with the school district”
Yup, our tax dollars at work

Everyone remember that this district is governed by board candidates endorsed by the publication you are reading. In the last five years, the Board has dramatically shrunk oversight - less public committee meetings, lowered requirement to approve budget items, fewer topics they’ll discuss at all (aka “policy diet”). Cops or no cops, this is a topic the Board should be discussing and inviting community input on. And can we also discuss how we got to this level of locker room behavior which in any other situation would probably warrant calling the police and pressing charges if say it happened at your neighborhood gym?

What’s happening at the district now? Well we were expecting to hear about 20 schools on the chopping block for closure but it’s been radio silence ever since a student was shot and killed on campus.

This district is a horror show.

“How do we know that?”

If you’re only hearing about the alleged sexual abuse of students at this school by reading this column and not via reporting in the school paper, that should be enough information to answer your question. Even if you don’t believe the student was intimidated by the school officer, there is no evidence to suggest the school was supportive of this information going public and plenty of evidence of the opposite.

"The existing literature does not find that School Based Law Enforcement makes schools safer. The evidence suggests that SBLE has detrimental consequences, particularly for exclusionary discipline."

https://humanecology.wisc.edu/research-insights-police-may-not-make-schools-safer/

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cl2.1360

@7 I'm not sure what about research indicating SROs don't make schools safer makes adding them back, even temporarily, "seem prudent" to you. Seems like a waste of money at best to me personally

@6 It is actually very reasonable to assume from one incident of the district using police to intimidate and silence students, an incident whose veracity was proven in court, that police are regularly being used by school authorities to silence student dissent.

We need to go back to the good old days when the school resource officers were all old dudes in their last year before retirement, but this time let them know that any failure on their part that results in a judgement comes out of the principle of their retirement fund.

@8/9 nah you’re right so let’s continue to express platitudes about gun control while black and brown kids die.

@10 Agreed! It is far past the time that private ownership of firearms be banned. We also need to make sure that all of those kids never go hungry or fear being homeless. Their schools should be funded such that all the best teachers in the country want to work in public schools, because no private school should be able to match the pay.

"How do you know that? We have no reason to believe this without further details."

Raindrop dear, your creepy Republican sex fantasies have no place on a family-oriented site like Slog. Take that over to 4chan or Nifty.

Bad cops are bad cops wherever they are. We've got to do a better job of weeding them out. But then, they often serve the powers that be, also bad people.

@3, @4: "And can we also discuss how we got to this level of locker room behavior which in any other situation would probably warrant calling the police and pressing charges if say it happened at your neighborhood gym?"

"...there is no evidence to suggest the school was supportive of this information going public and plenty of evidence of the opposite."

Exactly. The Stranger is using this issue narrowly, in support of its failed abolitionist position, instead of asking why blatantly illegal behavior was allowed in school, and then covered up by school officials.

@13: Bad cops are all cops. You can't weed them out, you have to torch the whole institution to the ground and rebuild.

@11 progressive statements on gun control measures after a shooting are no different than right wing thoughts and prayers. They virtue signal for the one saying it while doing nothing to address the actual issue.

@10 as it turns out "platitudes about gun control" are no less effective at stopping gun violence in schools than SROs

@21 it's funny you include the Capitol Police because they abjectly failed their one job on January 6, but Dems have nevertheless reimagined them as brave heroes for purely political reasons. You apparently fell for the copaganda.

Also SPD's top DUI cop was Daniel Auderer, so to answer your question: yes.

Raindrop dear, I'm just asking you to use some tact and discretion. I know you Republicans have a lot of sex problems, but it's important to exercise some self-control. This is the Internet, not some country club locker room.

@20/22 I'm glad you've embraced the mantra that if something isn't 100% effective we should just shut it down. I encourage you to turn your lens to the public education system, the homeless industry and our various attempts at drug treatment options. Using your logic we shouldn't put one more tax dollar into any of these things or we could not make perfect the enemy of the good and recognize you will never stop 100% of all bad things but SRO's are an effective means of reducing violence in schools. There are many studies out there that show this, the criticism is they also increase rates and severity of punishment.

@26 "SRO's are an effective means of reducing violence in schools. There are many studies out there that show this"

Share one then. You may have noticed I linked a comprehensive literature review from last year finding the opposite @6

Shouldn't we just eliminate guns, police and capitalism?

@27

https://www.albany.edu/news-center/news/2023-research-shows-having-police-schools-results-fewer-fights-harsher-discipline

in my own experience, in school and outside, the SRO spent most the day trying to bust students for truancy, pot or cigarettes. I volunteered for 5 years at a nearby youth center, which was a commonplace location for 'alternative culture' types. youth who didn't feel like they fit into the box, sort of speak. the youth center operated out of a defunct church, it held after school programs most the week that were engaged in giving high school students a safe place to be, in a non-denominational format. it had small concerts on the weekends, often featuring punk or hardcore, or acoustic shows. it was a great place. week days, it was basically a cafe, with a handful of youth counselors, with accreditation to do so. it was a beautiful place. people would use computers to do homework, buy shitty microwave pizzas, coffee, soda, lounge out on couches and complain about their week. the community watched out for, and took care of eachother. throughout challenges we faced, sometimes unfortunately domestic violence, sometimes even abuse, we all stood up for each other. it was a community of support none of us had. Our SRO made a habit of showing up on show nights to this nearby youth center specifically, to bust the attendees for truancy, cigarettes and whatever the fuck else they had on them. arguably yes, some were troubled youth, with trauma, with PTSD, and sometimes substance abuse issues. our SRO, didnt give a shit about guiding people to appropriate resources. this was over 12 years ago. it was NOT about protecting youth, or providing appropriate resources. not that it could have been, not that nowadays it can be. but boy did it leave a sour taste in my mouth. the youth center eventually shut down, despite community support because the city thought it more a liability than attempted to provide support. that's what south snohomish county looked like 15 years ago. its not better either. i highly doubt the idiot they employed as SRO would have done anything besides prosecute students for nonviolent offenses. he clearly occupied his entire time doing so.

@29 from that link: "The research shows that having an SRO present in schools reduces fights and threats by about 30 percent"

Minor reduction in totally normal school behavior, no evidence they prevent serious violence. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

This rag is what you get when you team up adults who never grew up with Gen Z folks who got trophies they didn't deserve.

@33 — but the study you posted says that there is a notable increase in students feeling safer in schools when there are police officers working there. Given The Stranger’s repeated expressions of concern for the mental well being of children, they should therefore be loud supporters of police officers in schools. Unless, of course, they don’t really care about the mental well being of kids, and were just pretending to care.

@35 I think you misread. From the study:

"In the model synthesizing all the perceived safety outcomes that used students as the unit of analysis, there were 12 effect sizes that came from two studies. The robust variance estimation model with a ρ value of 0.8 indicated that the mean weighted effect size was −0.03 (p = 0.585, 95% CI [−0.53, 0.47]). This estimate was not statistically significantly different from zero, indicating that students’ perceived safety in schools with SBLE was not significantly different from students’ perceived safety in schools without SBLE."

@36 -- nice job leaving out the preceding paragraph.

"The only subgroup analysis among the perception outcomes was perceived safety at school. In the model synthesizing all the perceived safety outcomes that used schools as the unit of analysis,there were seven effect sizes that came from two studies. The robust variance estimation model with a ρ value of 0.8 indicated that the mean weighted effect size was 0.18 (p = 0.016, 95% CI[0.13, 0.24]). This estimate was statistically significantly different from zero, indicating that perceived safety in schools with SBLE was significantly higher than in schools without SBLE. This is consistent with a framework suggesting that SBLE improves perceptions of safety at school."

Again, The Stranger has made clear in multiple posts that the mental well being of children is of the utmost priority. Since the study you cite indicates that perceived safety -- i.e. the mental well being of children -- is enhanced with law enforcement officers in school, I eagerly await the multiple posts from The Stranger demanding that the Seattle School District place police officers in every public school in the city to improve the mental well being of children.

@37 you're missing the import of the "unit of analysis." But in any event, to your attempted point, a study showed Universal Basic Income significantly reduces crime, especially property crime (https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~dcalnits/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Calnitsky-Gonalons-Pons-SP-manuscript-2020.pdf) so I eagerly await comments from you, D13, tensorna, et al demanding Seattle establish a UBI program.

@38: Sure, if you and the Stranger support a program which helps children feel safer in school. And as we can get SROs into schools now, we should do that first.

(Also, of all the reasons to support UBI, reducing property crimes at schools would seem to be pretty far down the list, but if that was the reason to get you on board, we’ll take it.)

Now, I’d really like to know why the Stranger has shown so little interest in Garfield admins’ cover-up of bullying assaults at that school.

@38 — had I commented about something other than what I commented on then your comment would be fair rather than a transparent effort to change the subject. That said, UBI is good! And I have no doubt if passed by the current city council and signed into law by Bruce Harrell, The Stranger will say that it’s bad.

@40 Seattle students themselves have said they want more mental health resources and they do not want cops in schools. You, based on extremely tenuous data you don't actually understand, argue Seattle should disregard the students' express wish and install SROs (who research shows do not reduce violence) to make schools "feel safe." My UBI comment wasn't an attempt to change the subject it was intended to mock your convoluted logic.

I'm glad you guys are on board with UBI though. I assumed you'd decry it as socialist and, tensora at least, launch into an anti-Sawant diatribe.

It is quite apparent that SROs do not decrease gun violence as witnessed by Uvalde and the Stoneman school shootings where student massacres still occurred despite the presence of SROs.