New strategy aims to prevent tragedies, support safer schools in King County

KING COUNTY, Wash. — There’s a question that’s constantly being asked that still has no definitive answer: how do we make and keep schools safe?

Whether it's a stolen gun used to kill a student at Ingraham High School in 2022 kids caught bringing guns on campus, or threatening violence on social media - school security problems are on the rise.

“Well, I think as a parent, no school is as safe as it can be,” said Baxi Vu, the parent of a high school student in Seattle.

“I think Security is not good at this moment, not at this moment,” said Mariana, another parent of a high school student in Seattle.

The King County Prosecutor’s Office (KCPO) is working to solve this problem with a new "Safer Schools Strategy." It was developed to help get students back to the status quo they had before the pandemic hit and before so many outside influences and variables infiltrated children’s lives.

“Like social media, availability of firearms, illegal substances, and so I think what we’ve really tried to do, as children are more present at school, is focus on intervention and prevention and provide as much support as possible,” said Jamie Kvistad, a King County Deputy Prosecutor, taking the lead on this program.

She told KOMO News the most important thing right now is communication and coordinating services. She spent the past year meeting with school districts to find out how they manage security now, what their needs are, and how the prosecutor’s office can help facilitate a safer environment.

Kvistad said the work she and others involved in this Safer Schools Strategy is really behind the scenes and not something that the parents, students, staff, or the community would see.

For instance, they are being proactive about notifying schools that may have students with pending felony firearm charges. The KCPO said they started doing that in 2023, and so far, they’ve identified 30 kids and alerted their school districts when possible.

“Rehabilitating that youth and holding that youth accountable, we are hoping that will make an impact, and that will prevent further tragedy,” said Kvistad.

The Safer Schools Strategy is also keeping the communication going between probation and schools regarding high-risk, high-need students on court supervision or other monitored release programs.

Would more kids fall through the cracks without this?

“The number of children who aren’t attending school, for me just as a parent, filled me with a lot of alarms about what the generational impact will be as a result of COVID, so you know if we want our kids to return to school our kids aren’t in school we have to make school a place that they want to be,” said Kvistad.

Part of Kvistad’s role in this strategy also includes helping districts conduct threat assessments and coordinate with law enforcement on potential referrals to reduce delays.

Kvistad’s been working with the Lake Washington School District on their threat assessment.

“Our shared goal is to keep students in school with the needed interventions that enable them to be successful in their education,” said Scott Emry, who’s the director of Risk and Safety Services at the Lake Washington School District.

“In our information technology society, we almost have this avalanche of information and so it makes it really hard to find the things that are important to our kids, to find the areas to focus on, to find out what resources our kids have and what they don’t have,” said Kvistad.

So does this mean more school resource officers in schools?

“I think all of the districts are different, and their needs are different, so part of our strategy is kind of supporting each district in the way that’s most appropriate for them,” said Kvistad.

She also said that she is working with other counties to see how they collaborate.

At the state level, Kvistad said she’s working with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and helping with a few committees working on legislative priorities.

“I mean, this is a statewide problem. It is, I think, a nationwide problem, so we’re looking to you know, support other counties and help them, but we’re also looking to learn from them. The more we can find out about what other places are doing the more we can figure out what intervention and prevention strategies would be successful here,” said Kvistad.

Kvistad admits that there is no tangible way of measuring the success of this new strategy, only what's perceived by parents, educators, and the community.

“Honestly, I think, you know there’s a ton of work that still needs to be done,” said Vu.

KOMO News also heard from school staff who preferred not to be identified, who said they’re scared every day they walk into school, further stressing the point that much more needs to be done to help students in this post-pandemic era.