Put cops back in school and shut down the street, Garfield High parents say after another Seattle shooting

Fiona is familiar with gun violence around Seattle's Garfield High School. The 17-year-old senior has sheltered in place while in a classroom, at basketball practice, and while jumping hurdles on the school's track — all in response to shots fired nearby.

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Still, when her mom called to let Fiona know that her friend was shot at a nearby bus stop on March 13, it came as a shock.

“My heart, like, immediately dropped … I was so sad," Fiona said. "I know they are going to be alright, but still — the PTSD and this ongoing cycle. Nothing has been done. I dunno, it needs to stop.”

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At around 2:40 p.m. that day, someone fired a gun from a light-colored SUV toward a bus stop near Garfield High School where many students were standing, according to the Seattle Police Department. A 17-year-old girl was shot in the leg and injured. She was not the intended target.

Such incidents are now familiar to the Garfield High School community. The school has experienced frequent shootings in recent years. For example, a series of altercations put Garfield and other nearby schools on lockdown last October. In June, three nearby shootings that did not involve students prompted another lockdown.

Garfield parents have had enough.

On Wednesday afternoon, some parents organized a demonstration to call attention to local gun violence, and to urge city leaders to take greater action. Some parents say they have solutions, despite what they perceive as little movement from city leaders.

“We feel a little forgotten here," said Melanie Skinner, Fiona's mom and an organizer of the event.

“We would love to see 23rd [Avenue] shut down from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day," Skinner said. "I know that’s going to be a terrible hassle for people, but gun violence is a terrible hassle.”

Skinner also supports placing school resource officers back at Garfield. These police officers were previously present at the high school, but were removed following local protests over the murder of George Floyd in 2020, and calls from students and parents with concerns about biased policing.

RELATED: School officers return to Bellevue School District

Karen Emmerman Mazner has a son, Ollie, a senior at Garfield, who luckily chose to walk home on the day of the recent bus stop shooting. He had friends, however, who were mere feet away from the bullets. Emmerman Mazner agrees that the blocks around the high school should be shut down when school is let out. She also wants more funding for organizations like Community Passageways, which works closely with the local community on issues of gun violence.

Community safety meetings about Seattle gun violence

School officials or police have often held community meetings following incidents of gun violence. Emmerman Mazner has hoped to hear solutions discussed at these meetings. She had the same hope Monday at SPD's East Precinct, as the community met to discuss the most recent incident, but described the answers the community received as "bonkers."

“While I appreciate that everyone is doing what they can do ... one of the answers was, ‘Hey, everybody knows someone with 15 guns around their house, sitting maybe on a refrigerator or a cabinet; tell them to lock them up,’" Emmerman Mazner said.

"I don’t know anyone who meets that description, and even if I did, that’s not what’s going to solve this problem tomorrow ... and we sit in these meetings time after time, and we get the same thing: ‘It takes a community, it takes a village, we all need to do our part.’ And we are doing our part, but also, our kids are getting shot.”

Seattle Public Schools said it continues to work with Seattle police to address safety concerns around Garfield. The department has increased its presence around the school and has a patrol car parked in front through this week. In a statement, Mayor Bruce Harrell's Office said he supports increased police staffing and surveillance technology to address public safety. The mayor also plans to hold five community safety forums in April.

In the meantime, Emmerman Mazner argues that, "The fact we only have police support until Friday is a problem."

RELATED: About the gun that killed a boy at Seattle’s Ingraham High School

“I really want, for at least one day, for these kids and the teachers and everyone here to feel a little bit safer," she said. "And I’d really like to make sure that people are paying attention, because this keeps happening to this community, over and over again, and nothing very tangible changes.”

“I want to have the big conversation, and I hope what this will do is let us have the local, here and now, ‘What are we going to do today?’ [conversation], so that our children don’t go to school every single day worried if they are going to get shot, and we don’t have to feel sick every single morning worried that they are going to get shot.”

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