St. Paul has a school safety emergency

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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More than 300 people packed a high school cafeteria earlier this week for a St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS) school safety listening session — an indication of the widespread community concern after several frightening incidents involving weapons.

The next step SPPS will take is holding meetings at each of the city's seven high schools to develop individual safety plans. That's a constructive start. Each community should talk through the issues and develop safety plans tailored to individual schools while the district develops its own plan.

But make no mistake: Meetings alone are not enough. All safety strategies must be considered as SPPS looks to address a growing threat to its students and schools. This has to be a priority for Superintendent Joe Gothard and his administration.

More than 60 people who attended the session at Washington Tech on Tuesday addressed the SPPS board. The teachers union and others called for the emergency meeting just after 15-year-old Devin Denelle Edward Scott was fatally stabbed inside Harding High in early February. Three St. Paul high schools — Central, Harding and Washington Tech — went into lockdown after shootings or other weapons incidents earlier this year.

Those who testified talked about a range of school safety issues that paint a disturbing picture of conditions within the schools. Washington teacher Joyce Jones Strait, for example, said students regularly use cellphones to coordinate fights and sometimes announce and stir up conflicts on social media. Como Park freshman Nafiso Ahmed told the group that it's no longer surprising to "see someone with a knife or a gun.''

In addition, troubling allegations about previous SPPS responses were voiced during the meeting. Some staff members claimed that they had raised concerns about safety, but their pleas were ignored by district administrators. Some didn't want their names used out of fear of retaliation from their bosses.

In response, SPPS communications director Erica Wacker told an editorial writer that the district has strict anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation policies. She added that every school currently has an emergency operations plan that dictates which situations require lockdowns, lockouts, clearing buildings and notifying families. Those plans will be up for discussion and likely modified as the school-specific meetings are held this month.

Wacker said that each of the high schools has at least two Student Support Liaison (SSLs) — security staff who do not carry guns but have pepper spray and handcuffs. After George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, SPPS ended its contract with the St. Paul Police Department to provide School Resource Officers (SROs) — a move the Star Tribune Editorial Board recommended against — and replaced them with SSLs.

As the Editorial Board has argued previously, school safety strategies should include a range of options — including beefing up preventive measures such as boosting mental health services and increasing the number of counselors, social workers and other student support staff. St. Paul should also revisit the use of SROs, as well as policies on metal detectors, cellphone use and improved security access to school buildings.

Another idea to consider is reviewing the policies for removing students from school when they are caught with weapons. Though state rules say they must be expelled, some students have been moved around instead. St. Paul hasn't expelled a student in two years, according to Wacker.