by Shae Huppert, Princess Green, Colby Tran, Michael Dixon, and Mark Epstein
The 2024—25 school year is off to an uncertain start for Seattle, to say the least. The community faces unaddressed trauma, awaiting the SPS decision to close up to 20 elementary and possibly K—8 schools. Garfield High School students, staff, and parents have had no resolution to the murder of Amarr Murphy-Paine at the end of the school year on campus; his killer remains free.
To add insult to injury, with the City Council deciding to defund the $20 million promise originally allocated to student mental health by $7.75 million in early August, the mayor's 100 Day Safety Plan finally being delivered at a press conference at Rainier Beach High School on Aug. 22, and the Aug. 28 School Board Meeting where the school safety plan was presented by Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones, there have been many decisions made; few have youth at the center.
The mayor and superintendent's plan includes new personnel — "violence interrupters" — along with other safety measures that address public health. Many questions remain as to where these dollars go, why students were not centered in the decision process, and how we can recenter youth in process and policy moving forward.
If you ask students, they will tell you, and then they will remind you that while they have a pretty good sense of the diversity of student perspectives, more students need to be involved in finding solutions to the issues that impact them the most. Students are adamant that violence prevention must include addressing the ecosystem of root causes; it must deal with the intersection of student mental health, youth enrichment opportunities, and safe third spaces that foster a sense of community for young people.
This is part of a series in the South Seattle Emerald called Back to School2: An Educational Series on Education highlighting advocacy efforts in education policy from the local School Board to the State Legislature.
As educators, youth, and community safety specialists, we sat down to have a conversation between the current Garfield ASB student leadership team, Shae, Princess, and Colby, veteran educator Mark Epstein, and community safety expert Michael Dixon.
Michael Dixon founded the first Black Student Union in Washington State at Garfield High School in 1967—1968. While youth leadership policies and opportunities exist because of the work of elders like Dixon, the experience youth have been able to acquire in leadership leaves much to be desired. To put this issue into perspective, check out Lesson #1 of the Back 2 School Series, a Q&A with student leaders from across the state who recount feeling tokenized throughout the system.
In a series of conversations between educators and students, we sat down to discuss these connected intersecting issues, develop questions, and come up with a plan to recenter the conversation around students' needs, values, and vision for a student-centered school system.
We developed these questions with youth leaders to ensure that they were able to frame the conversation.
Princess: When I was listening to the mayor's press conference and reading the press release by the City, I saw the new role of "violence interrupters." How do these policies that the City and school district put forth compare with the work you did to promote community alternatives for security and restorative justice at Garfield in the 1960s?
Mr. Dixon: Caring for students' social and physical needs will take care of their mental health. We have diminished the role of security specialists as members of our school community. "Security" means more than reducing fights, suicide, harassment, or bullying. To address the root causes of diminished school safety, we must look at mental health; to address mental health concerns, we have to focus on their social needs. Especially after pandemic isolation, students need to relearn the skills of community-building and developing empathy.
In addition, security works within a network of counselors, academics, mental health, and social workers; these people are doing sacred work with our young people and must have relationships with community and one another. The intellect of the school community will go up and violence will go down.
I have questions about "violence interrupters." Who they report to, what their designated roles are when interacting with our young people, and if they are a cover for putting officers back in schools. The mayor's plan includes increasing from two to four security guards in at-risk school.
Back in the '90s, when I did security, we proposed taking on caseloads, expanding the role more into social work. Instead, the district rejected our alternatives to policing and reinstated their contracts with SPD, putting school resource officers into schools. While the mayor's plan doesn't appear to fully regress to these levels, we are worried that will happen again.
With the intersecting impacts of COVID, mental health, and the gun violence crisis of public health, on top of the national social crisis we are experiencing in America of extreme political polarization and wealth inequality, our moment today demands a new vision for a better society led by youth. What do you see as the root causes of the student mental health crisis we are in today? What do you see as the solutions?
Shae: What I have taken away from my conversations about student safety is that the connection between mental health and our physical safety is overlooked. We cannot discuss solutions to physical safety without addressing the lack of mental health and social wellness support in schools. I know that if we have the resources that we need, we will be a safer community; there is a foundational connection between them.
Violence in our schools is a symptom of poor social wellness and limited mental health resources. Instead of providing a comfortable, supporting environment where students can express emotions in times of conflict or stress, we are often punished for our reactions to human feelings. Without this necessary support, we struggle to regulate our emotions and effectively communicate our social wellness and mental health needs as our lives become increasingly intense as teens.
After the COVID pandemic, many students struggled more than ever with feeling lonely, unsupported, alienated, and unsafe. After over a year of being socially isolated, there was little done to make sure students could effectively transition back into the social atmosphere of schools.
It's important that students have relationships with staff, teachers, administration, and security that are built on trust. We need to know that someone will be there for us when working through the challenging parts of life. We need to know that if we're struggling, someone will notice; someone will care.
Princess: The root of the issue is that more and more teens are becoming socially inoperative; unable to sustain healthy social lives. Social health is a topic that many don't realize is so important. As a teenager, social interaction is a key part of our lives. COVID had a crippling effect on human interaction, and we are still facing those consequences today. Social media is also damaging our ability to simply talk to each other. We need to both restore the sense of community and address the root causes of harm we experience today. We must fully invest in community solutions for the mental health crisis we are currently facing.
Mental health is the ability to navigate through your emotional issues and personal obstacles, but what about our social issues? If children at a young age were given the guidance to take care of their mental and social health, there would be less violence amongst teens now. Many students, including myself, are afraid of the police. We need the opportunity to build relationships with community safety teams like Community Passageways in our schools and police in the neighborhoods.
We feel that police presence can help lower the risk of gun violence affecting students, but we don't want our school to feel like a prison. Police officers can be very overwhelming for students, especially when thinking about the rate of police brutality in America. To make sure students feel comfortable, we need a plan for which types of responders get involved in our different crises, so there are many alternatives before the police get involved. We need to have healthy relations between police and students. Having community organizations and security guards, as well as police, is an effective solution to keep students safe without having a negative impact on their mental health. Especially in times like these when multiple tiers of support are needed, we must develop systems that center students.
Mark: What role have you, and the Garfield ASB, had in the decisions that Mayor Harrell and Superintendent Jones have made about school safety? Do you feel like these decisions, and the process of making them, adequately centered the student voice? How do you want to use your role moving forward to help shape policy on school safety and the larger ecosystem of mental health and student wellness?
Colby: The Garfield ASB has had a minimal role regarding school safety decisions made by Mayor Harrell and Superintendent Jones. This seems very inappropriate as we, the students, are the ones being affected the most by these decisions. Acting for us rather than with us makes the student body feel unheard and invalidated. The student voice was not centered in the decision-making. We have been silenced at meetings, and our questions have been redirected to fit what community leaders want to hear.
The inclusion of student voice should be a top priority when making decisions that impact us. This is not only because we want to feel heard, but we also know what will be most effective in benefitting our community and making a safe and healthy learning environment. I would like to use my voice to expose these issues and concerns, giving the district no choice but to listen to our ideas in hopes that they are implemented into school safety decisions moving forward. That starts with articles like this, attending and speaking at school board meetings, and working with other programs and leaders to create real change in our community.
As much as I would like to cause adjustment and transformation on a district level, I also recognize my power as an ASB leader within Garfield. And we need to collaborate with other ASBs across the city and the new student school board representatives. I want to be a beacon of hope for the students who are confused as to why they aren't seeing immediate change and improvement in our building. I want to gather student opinions and proposals on school safety, as well as mental, social, and physical health so more powerful leaders in our community can better understand our wants and needs. My goal is to help bridge the gap between students and district officials, given that this is an intergenerational problem that needs an intergenerational solution.
This important conversation points to the need for some critical changes that must be made when it comes to youth engagement in our civic process and school policies.
Recent critiques of City Council charge them with dismissing, gaslighting, and silencing youth and community at City Hall. The need for systemic change in youth and community engagement policies is more important than ever.
Students who speak out for justice are not presenting unrealistic or idealistic demands when they put forth their vision for an ecosystem to address root causes of our current intersecting social and mental health crises; they are talking about life and death. When we talk about youth, we must not center the conversation on their future but on their present. Present conditions will determine our future. Young people must not be excluded from this process.
In the coming weeks, students, with community leaders, elders, and educators supporting them, will be presenting a proposal to reclaim and revise what meaningful student-centered community engagement looks like for the City Council, for Seattle Public Schools, and for their individual schools and communities.
This will mean addressing policies including:
Enhancement of Seattle's Associated Student Body (ASB) policy and Student Rights and Responsiblity Policy:
We must have a robust investment in student leadership positions at individual schools and a citywide council for that voice to be represented in policy discussions with the district. The Seattle Student Union provides one model for this apparatus, but the conversation should include community organizations like the NAACP Youth Council and Creative Justice Youth Consortium.
Revision of the Student School Board Representative Policy and holding our school board and district accountable to the Student Outcome Focused Governance (SOFG):
As students called for in the first article of the Back 2 School2 series, we need consistent support for student representatives so they feel empowered in their roles.
Full investment in community solutions for violence prevention, mental health, and social health at our schools for students and staff in the fall budget cycle at City Council; $20 million was just the beginning.
Review and revision of the City Community Engagement Policies and programs, so that we have measures of accountability for authentic and effective community and youth engagement. This must be in conjunction with students, and what better way than the student leadership apparatuses mentioned in the policy changes above? City Council and our City officials must meet the student body where they are at, in school communities, and answer students' questions — an important recentering of this conversation.
Make City Hall accessible to equitable and meaningful youth participation.
Adopting a policy is one thing; implementation is the real work. As students reclaim this work and define what it means to them, it behooves us to listen and honor their voice, and act on their concerns. In a forthcoming community letter, they will lay out their proposal to address these intersecting issues.
If you, or a youth you know in Seattle, wants to put your learning into practice with some community "service" hours, please reach out to @seattlestudentunion to get involved in student organizing citywide.
The South Seattle Emerald is committed to holding space for a variety of viewpoints within our community, with the understanding that differing perspectives do not negate mutual respect amongst community members.
The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the contributors on this website do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the Emerald or official policies of the Emerald.
Mark Epstein is a 31-year South Seattle resident. He taught elementary and high school for 35 years, with the last 25 at Rainier Beach High School. He is a devoted father and grandfather, with daily walks and love from his pandemic puppy. He has been a career-long union activist, and since his retirement in 2019, he has been active in support of immigrant communities in our state. A lover of music and growing food, he is also an avid biker for transportation.
Michael Dixon was part of the founding members of Washington's first Black Student Union at Garfield High School in the 1967—68 school year. Soon after, Michael joined the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panthers. As a student, he worked on the issues of school safety, violence prevention, and building student leadership along the way. As president of the Black Student Union, he helped to build a movement of inter-racial solidarity that took over Garfield, demanding a Black administration be appointed and a Black-centered, quality education program implemented, a successful campaign with impact felt today. Since the '60s, Michael has worked at the intersections of education, alternatives to incarceration, student rehabilitation, and school safety in Seattle. Ending the school to prison pipeline is his life's work.
This piece was written with the support of Oliver Miska, a coproducer of the Back to School2 series.
Oliver Treanor Miska, 33, is a queer Seattleite, educator, community organizer, and lobbyist for educational justice policy in Washington State. Transitioning out of Seattle classrooms after six years, they recently founded Solidarity Policy and Public Affairs, a political consulting firm. As a community organizer, Oliver has held leadership roles within Seattle Democratic Socialist of America and Washington Ethnic Studies Now, where they co-lead a statewide legislative coalition. Oliver is organizing to advocate for progressive revenue and equitable distribution of education spending policy at the state Legislature. To contact them, email solidaritypolicywa@gmail.com
📸 Featured Image: (Photo: PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock.com)
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