Ingraham shooting sparks Seattle officials to call for gun control

Seattle school district officials and elected leaders are calling for increased safety measures and stronger gun control laws after a student was shot and killed in a Seattle public school for the first time in nearly 30 years. 

A 14-year-old allegedly smuggled a gun into school then shot another student in what Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Brent Jones called a “targeted attack” in a hallway at Ingraham High School Tuesday morning. The 14-year-old and another student, 15, have been arrested. Now, officials want safety improvements, enhanced gun control and other interventions. 

Jones announced a new safety initiative at Wednesday night’s regular School Board meeting to address short- and long-term needs in school buildings. 

And Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell called for the state to lift a law prohibiting cities from implementing their own gun policies.

Seattle Public Schools, the largest district in the state with 106 schools, doesn’t have the capacity to create a tailored safety plan for each school, Jones said. But there are some standards and practices that the district can adopt. 

The district will assemble a threat and community action team, with advice from the mayor and police chief, to assess what SPS can do to improve safety at school buildings, Jones said. The district will also launch a child well-being council led by nurses, psychologists and other mental health experts.

Classes at Ingraham have been canceled for the rest of the week. A health team will be at Ingraham to provide support for students when they return to school Monday, Jones said. 

“As a leader of this district, I never want our Ingraham community or any of our schools to experience this,” Jones said at the meeting. “I saw the aftermath of this firsthand and I saw the yellow tape that should not be in our schools.”

Before the meeting, Seattle School Board members embraced each other as they walked up to the dais, expressed their condolences and spoke about the shock, trauma, and hurt the death of a child has caused the community. 

When she heard the news of the shooting, “my stomach just dropped,” said Liza Rankin, the Seattle board member who represents the Ingraham High area. 

Rankin said preventing gun violence has been a priority for her since she was elected to the board, and she has asked PTAs and others who work in schools to promote the King County Lock It Up program, which provides resources and support to store guns safely. 

Community leaders mourned the victim, but quickly pivoted to calling for changes to prevent future attacks.

Seattle City Council President Debora Juarez, who represents the district that includes Ingraham, said she was “heartbroken” by the shooting.

“Sadly, gun violence is closer than we think in our communities, schools and public spaces. We must stand together as one city against the violence like we saw today,” Juarez said in a written statement, recalling a 2018 gun violence protest held at the same school. 

Harrell called for enhanced school safety and gun control in the city at a news conference on Tuesday. 

“Seattle Public Schools students can’t learn or develop or grow to be the best versions of themselves when they have to fear for their lives,” Harrell said.

“Our schools have to be the highest safe havens for our youths, for our teachers, for our families.” 

While an SPD spokesperson said the department does not track individual gun incidents at schools, the last two fatal shootings at or inside a Seattle public school happened 28 years ago, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. In 1994, a student was killed outside of Ballard High School in a drive-by shooting, and that same year a teacher was killed at Whitman Middle School by a former student he had abused.

At the mayor’s news conference Tuesday, Seattle police Chief Adrian Diaz noted that there had been more than 600 shots fired in the city this year and over 1,000 firearms seized by the police. 

On Wednesday, Harrell couldn’t pinpoint a specific policy response to this incident, but suggested the state consider a number of approaches including training requirements, extended waiting periods and assault-rifle bans.

“It’s too early to know which exact gun safety measures might have prevented this tragedy. The simple fact is that there are too many guns in our communities and those guns are too easy to access,” Harrell said in a written statement, noting that “action will save lives, and inaction too often results in tragedy.”

“I’ll continue to push our state Legislature to adopt stronger gun laws, and lift restrictions that prevent local governments the freedom to enact their own gun safety policies — lives are on the line,” Harrell added.

Also on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal — a Democrat who represents Washington’s 7th Congressional District, including most of Seattle — seconded Harrell’s calls for stricter gun control, calling on her colleagues to address the issue at the federal level.

“Even if cities take on the issue of guns, it is very difficult if somebody can bring guns in from somewhere else,” Jayapal said, noting that recent congressional gun control action “wasn’t sufficient.”

“You can’t solve this just as a city and so I recognize the work that we have to do at the federal level,” she added.

Jayapal said effective policy would have to be broader than just gun control, and would also have to address issues like mental health.

“And we will not rest until we can assure our families, our kids, our communities across the country that we are doing everything possible to address this crisis of gun violence, of mental health, of surviving, in a world that’s pretty darn tough,” she added. 

In an interview after the board meeting, Jones talked about enacting measures outside of school to prevent gun violence, and “inside of school around social-emotional support and what are our community partners and resources we have that’s available to us to bring a whole comprehensive way to look at it.”

Brandon Hersey, Seattle Schools board president, said the board must start having conversations with other local elected leaders and community members, but also be “part of the healing process of folks most directly impacted. I think many things can be true at the same time.”

The shooting at Ingraham has had a ripple effect. Nathan Hale High School was ordered to shelter in place on Wednesday after threats of violence surfaced, district officials confirmed. Seattle student board member Luna Crone-Baron, who attends Nathan Hale, recalled teachers escorting students to the bathroom.

“What we need is to know that we are safe in our school buildings, and I can speak with confidence when I say we do not feel safe at school,” Crone-Baron said during the meeting. “And even as we look to how we create systemic solutions to make sure this doesn’t happen again, this kid, someone’s baby, is still dead.”