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Parents protest outside Garfield High School calling for more safety, one week after shooting

The protest comes one week after a 17-year-old student was shot while at a bus stop outside the school.

SEATTLE — Dozens of parents protested outside of Garfield High School concerned about ongoing gun violence.

This comes one week after a 17-year-old student was shot while at a bus stop outside the school.

“We just wanted to get out here and make it feels safer," said Karen Emmerman Mazner, one of the organizers. "For one day maybe everyone in the Garfield building can walk out to the bus stop and not feel afraid."

Seattle Police said she was not the intended target in the drive-by shooting that sent people running for safety. Garfield High School and sheltered in place, something students and parents said has become a norm.

“We get text from our kids at school saying, 'Hey I’m in shelter in place I was out on the field for lunch there were shots adjacent to the field and we all go pulled inside,'" said Kathleen Lendvay, who has a sophomore at Garfield High School. "You don’t get used to it."

Lendvay said she and other parents have compiled the number of times that’s happened in the last 12 months.

“Six times now we’ve been in the case where we’re getting a message from the school message system or from other parents saying there’s shelter in place or shots around the school,” Lendvay said.

“It's really tough," Emmerman Mazner said. "It's a horrible, horrible thing to be 18 years old and know you or your friends could be touched by gun violence in that way."

Parents want city and school leaders to invest in safety around Garfield High School.

“The powers that be that control resources and policy and allocation of funds I don’t know if they’re seeing it as a priority,” Lendvay said.

“I would love to see Seattle Public Schools to better fund groups out here like Community Passageways,” Emmerman Mazner said.

Community Passageways is a group that’s outside Garfield High School every day. They are there during lunch and after school to make sure kids get to and from there safely.

“They feel a lot safer when we're out here they feel like somebody is actually doing something," said Mark Rivers, deputy director for Community Passageways. "We’ve done it. We'll continue to do it like we do every day, and hopefully we'll do more as a city and as a community."

Seattle police said it will have a presence around Garfield High School for the foreseeable future.

KING 5 reached out to Seattle Public Schools and is waiting to hear back.

    

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