Should resource officers be brought back to Ingraham High School after Tuesday’s shooting?

SEATTLE, Wash. — The shooting death of a north Seattle student is reigniting conversations about whether students and their families would feel safer if Seattle Public Schools (SPS) brought school resource officers (SRO) back to campuses.

People dropped off flowers and knelt in prayer Thursday for the teen shot and killed inside Ingraham High School Tuesday. “It's just such a tragedy. I can't make any sense of it. And I hate that it's becoming part of our society,” said Bonnie Morris of Seattle.

Some students who heard the gunfire Tuesday are now demanding answers and security changes at Seattle schools. “There should be metal detectors or something at this point,” said senior Amerino Sennell.

“Students are making demands because the adults in our world aren’t making the changes that they need to feel safe,” said Stephanie Kiracofe, who left flowers at the teen's memorial Wednesday.

At a press conference Tuesday, hours after the deadly shooting at Ingraham High School, Seattle Chief of Police Adrian Diaz acknowledged there were no SROs on campus at the time of the tragedy.

“Right now, we do not have school resource officers in the schools,” Diaz said Tuesday. “We’ve also been really short-staffed. Being that we’re short-staffed, we really have to make sure that we’re dedicated to 911 responses.”

On Wednesday, SPD’s African American Community Advisory Council President Victoria Beach demanded the district look at reinstating SROs. She said the presence could make people think twice about bringing a weapon onto campus.

“I don't know if the outcome would've been different yesterday, we'll never know. But they need to be back in schools. Our kids deserve to have protection,” she said.

RELATED: Student shot at Ingraham High School in north Seattle dies, person in custody

Until June 2020, there were four Seattle Police Department staff assigned to four SPS middle schools. That changed after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

At the time, former SPS Superintendent Denise Juneau sent the following message to the SPS community that read, in part: “In light of the current national events: the perpetuation of systemic racism, the murders of Black people by police officers across our country, the violence displayed by some law enforcement officers here in Seattle, a resolution will be put forth by the School Board to reevaluate our relationship with the Seattle Police Department and to enact a district-wide one-year suspension of placing SEOs and the SRO in our schools.”

In a statement Wednesday, a district spokesperson said that “while there may be consideration of the presence of Seattle Police and/or School Emphasis Officers there are no formal discussions underway.”

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“We will continue to work with the students and faculty, the teachers and administrators, on what true collaboration and community-based solutions look like, and that’s why some of the community-based organizations that are here doing this important work will look like,” Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said at Tuesday’s press conference. “So, school resource officer, the officers around the campus interfacing with the students, all of those are discussions we’ll continue to have, and hopefully, the solutions will result in a better Seattle and a better school district.”

Looking ahead at future safety measures, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said the city has more work to do to find solutions.

“So, school resource officer, the officers around the campus interfacing with the students, all of those are discussions we’ll continue to have and hopefully the solutions will result in a better Seattle and a better school district,” Harrell stated.

Bellevue also got rid of its SROs but just this fall added a new program to help build relationships between kids and law enforcement.