SEATTLE — The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office notified King County schools of 69 students charged with felony gun crimes. The notification is part of its "Safer Schools Strategy" that launched in January.
"If they can't access guns, they can't use them to commit felonies. Our concern is always access to weapons," said Jamie Kvistad, senior deputy prosecutor at the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors said juvenile crime reached pre-pandemic levels and its Safer Schools Strategy helps to curb that. One major component is notifying schools when a student is charged with a felony gun crime.
"Last week alone, we had two children arrested with guns in schools in two different school districts, which is pretty astonishing if you think about it," Kvistad said.
Kvistad is the lead attorney for the Safer Schools Strategy, which aims to improve school safety.
"It really came as a result of some of the challenges we saw as a result of COVID, including chronic absenteeism. We've noticed in our schools, there have been a lot more behavioral issues. Children are struggling with mental health," Kvistad said.
State statute requires schools be notified when there's a conviction, but prosecutors said it's important for schools to know before that. The school is then able to work with a juvenile's probation counselor to make sure they comply with the conditions of their release.
"We make sure that the school knows who that person is and we also make sure that the school understands what the conditions of release are," Kvistad said.
Standard conditions for a juvenile facing serious charges are to attend school without behavioral issues, without tardies or absences, and to not possess weapons or commit crimes.
"We want our schools to understand that the court is monitoring that and if a child isn't in compliance, we want to schedule a hearing so we can address that behavior immediately," Kvistad said.
The connection between the school and the juvenile's probation counselor also helps determine what further services and counseling are needed.
"Whenever it comes to the safety of our children at school, we obviously want to go above and beyond to make sure that any information that the school has they need. Everyone's talking, everyone's making sure that whatever needs to happen so that we can keep our kids safe," Kvitad said.
A juvenile in possession of a firearm itself is a felony and prosecutors are seeing children committing armed robberies and other crimes involving guns.
Earlier this year, 12- and 13-year-old brothers were charged after prosecutors said they carjacked a woman at gunpoint, led police on a pursuit through downtown Seattle, and were found with untraceable firearms.
Most recently, a deadly shooting in Garfield High School's parking lot killed 17-year-old Amarr Murphy-Paine. The suspected shooter has not been caught and is believed to be a teenager.
Kvistad said firearms appear to be more accessible to children.
"We always want to remind the community that we need everyone's help. We need parent involvement. We need our children to be at school, and we need to just really sort of foster growth, look at our protective factors of our children and really invest it," Kvistad said.