Equity in schools

Crank started out by asking the panelists to address the topic of equity in education, including how the COVID-19 pandemic may have changed access to education, especially with remote learning.

Karin and Eric Butler, who’ve lived in Edmonds for 17 years, spoke first. The couple, who own honey water company HunniCo and have four boys ages 8-16, addressed the history of their involvement with the Edmonds School District.

“The very first time I spoke at a school board meeting was in reference to the n-word being spray painted on our kids’ school skylight — like they looked up and saw ‘F– n-word, and that was their morning meeting,” Karin Butler recalled. She also cited “certain things in (district) leadership where there were just giant blindspots to the harm that was done in that moment, and that that moment had been the accumulation of many other moments at Madrona (K-8 school in Edmonds) where the n-word was written.”

Even several years prior to the skylight incident, Karin Butler said she recalled approaching their kids’ teachers “after Trayvon Martin, after Tamir Rice, in tears like why is nobody talking about this. There’s no action, no needle is moving anywhere, it’s just silence. That was just the beginning of our understanding of the inequities of education for our kids specifically and knowing that their journey would be different.”

Eric Butler, who is Black and grew up in Florida, said he had hoped “that it would get better. That you wouldn’t have to share some of the same stories I had growing up with my kids. It’s just disappointing.”

“2020. Same stuff,” Eric Butler added.

“Just fighting for the same things that our Black students are fighting for now — more representative curriculum, representation in school boards, in places of leadership, representation in the teachers, parents, every space that they see in their environment every day,” Karin Butler said.

Mark Davis, who is Black and has lived in Edmonds with his wife Rhienn, for 13 years, then asked about the percentage of people of color teaching in the Edmonds School District. School Board President Kilgore replied that it was about 10% to 11%, which — while low — is “a great improvement over just a couple of years ago,” she said.

“I bring that up because I know that growing up, for me, and other students — my friends — having a person of color as their teacher was helpful,” said Davis, who is the father of two teen boys  That’s even more important during current discussions about racial inequality, he added. He wondered if the district was making an effort to hire more teachers of color, adding that it would “greatly help with the dialogue with students and parents throughout the district.”

Woodard, who is Black and is a founder of the Teachers of Color Foundation — which aims to increase the diversity of Edmonds School District teaching staff — agreed with Davis that “representation absolutely still matters.”

Woodard said that during COVID-19, when people risk becoming more isolated, it’s critical to ensure “you are part of systems that recognize racial equality matters.” He also added that Washington state’s community and technical college system is committed to that effort.

When it was her turn to speak, School Board President Kilgore stressed that the school district has made “a concerted effort to redo our recruiting processes and our hiring processes. However, we have a long way to go.” It’s important, she said, for the district to keep “that focus on racial equity and representation as a goal.”

Crank then relayed questions from parents asking how the district will work to ensure internet access when schools begin in a remote learning environment this fall. (Students already have access to district-issued Chromebooks for instruction purposes.)

“We have been putting a lot of our effort into making sure that all of our students have internet access,” Kilgore said. This included making sure that more families were able to access Xfinity’s Internet Essentials program, “which is very reasonably priced but if families can’t afford it, we will pay for it,” she said. The district has purchased 500 codes for that service, and the district’s family engagement staff is working to identify families who need it. At least some of that cost may be reimbursable through the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, she said.

In the spring, when the district shifted to remote learning due to COVID-19, it gave out internet hotspots, and those will still be used in certain situations when families can’t get cable access or have other barriers, Kilgore said. “We are also setting up more Wi-Fi hotspots around our district buildings so people can actually drive there and get access, and work with the municipalities who have also set up Wi-Fi hotspots, like near library,” she added.

Woodard said that Edmonds College has been focused not only on ensuring internet access to its students, but also supplying hardware. “There’s a presumption that people have laptops or that they have smart phones or any other device,” he said.

The college also “invested a lot of time in our faculty, making sure that they knew how to teach online in a remote status,” Woodard said.

Removing police officers from schools

Crank then turned the conversation to the district’s decision this summer to remove police officers — known as School Resource Officers or SROs — from its high schools. Noting that some people criticized the school board for making the decision “on the fly because of Black Lives Matter,” Crank asked former and current school board members Paine and Kilgore how long the district had been discussing the idea.

Paine, who served on the school board from 2005-2011, said she had a background working in King County juvenile court and saw the negative experience kids had with police and court officials, adding it was “really unhealthy.”

“It was one of my goals to get SROS out of all of our high schools,” she said, adding it was “a tough discussion sometimes.” Budget cuts due to the recession in 2008 forced the issue, and the board removed SROS to save money. The exception was Lynnwood High School, which was exempt due to concerns about Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office response times to the school, located in unincorporated Snohomish County.

Kilgore, who was elected to her first term on the board in 2017, noted she had just been sworn in when the board started to bring officers back into the schools. She said she has also done work in criminal justice, completing her doctoral dissertation at a women’s prison in Texas. “So I have seen also what interaction with criminal justice up and down from the police all the way to incarceration, how it does ruin families,’ she said.

While she said she was “troubled” by the idea of bringing officers back into schools, she said the board was inundated by feedback that not having SROs would leave high schools vulnerable to school shootings.

She said she kept asking about the goal of having a police officer on campus, and discovered “it really wasn’t necessarily to protect the kids from one of these rare, horrific events.”

While she initially went along with the idea to keep officers in place, “I had a lot of serious questions and at the same time we have families coming to us, and students coming to us, telling us ‘please don’t do this.'”

The momentum shifted with the Black Lives Matter movement — and the board voted unanimously to remove the officers – first from Edmonds-Woodway, Meadowdale and Mountlake Terrace high schools and then — after further study — from Lynnwood High School

Kilgore stressed, however, that “it’s not about individuals because these officers did make a positive difference to some students in these schools. It wasn’t about them specifically, it was about whether there’s a role for a police officer to play in a school.” She said that when she studied the research on school shootings, “there’s really not anything too compelling to say they prevent or stop (shootings).”

With the decision, it is now critical for the district “to develop a model of safety and wellness for our kids that doesn’t include these police officers,” she said. Some kids indicated that police officers served as a confidant who would listen to them when no one else would, and “we have to look at why aren’t our teachers and counselors able to fill this role? What are we missing in our school system that we need to bring somebody from another agency to do it.” Kilgore said.

Crank then asked the families on the panel how they felt about the issue. Rhienn Davis agreed that kids needed confidants, but “the idea that it requires to someone in a uniform that’s maybe armed to handle that seems like a lot.” Instead, she suggested using the money to hire a non-police officer to serve in that community resource role.

Karin Butler said that “police officers do not represent safety for our family.”

“For us personally, it’s like, we get pulled over as a family and I have to worry about the safety of myself and my kids,” Eric Butler added. “Having that in school environments is tough.” He also said that while he has police officers who are friends, “it still doesn’t discount what happens in your life.”

“We really need to rethink the goals, the structures of these systems and what it would mean for true safety for all of our students in the school environment,” Karin Butler added. “This is the time — questioning why are these happening, what are we doing and broadening our perspective to understand how these systems can cause harm, and also how to restructure what changes must be made so they are equitable.”

What constitutes a hate crime?

The final topic of the day was one that has been much discussed in the community: racially charged incidents in the last few years involving youth of color in Edmonds. Two matters in particular were discussed: one in February 2018 outside Harvey’s Lounge on Highway 99 in Edmonds, and the other earlier this summer involving the vandalism of “I Can’t Breathe” artwork across from the Edmonds Police Station.

While the Edmonds Police Department in both case referred hate crime charges to the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office, prosecutors declined to file charges in either case.

Crank asked Prosecuting Attorney Cornell to discuss why neither case rose to the level of being charged as a hate crime.

Cornell started by saying he was “deeply sorry” for the indignities suffered by those on the panel who have been the victims “of subtle or not-so-subtle racism in your lives.”

He said he wanted to provide some context on “what really can make a prosecutable case,” adding that “we cannot charge somebody with a crime unless we believe we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt — and that is highest standard in our criminal justice system.”

Police make an arrest using a standard of probable cause, “which is really more likely than not,” Cornell said.

“We have to look at the facts and the law that is given to us by the (state) Legislature,” Cornell said, and in order to prove a hate crime offense, there are elements of those crimes that prosecutors have to show can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

These include maliciously or intentionally committing an act such as physical injury to a victim or a damage to physical property, or threatens a person or places them in reasonable fear based on the perception of the person’s race.

“I can tell you that my office has prosecuted hate crime offenses and these cases continue to be a priority for my office,” Cornell said.

“But we can’t Just charge somebody because we think something happened. We can’t charge somebody based on speculation,” Cornell said. “It would be unethical to do so and to do that would be unjust and certainly wouldn’t be furthering racial or social justice to unjustly charge anyone with a crime.”

In the “I Can’t Breathe” incident, in which an artwork was defaced with black spray paint, “we could not prove that that person’s act was a consequence of his perception of the artist’s race,” Cornell said. “That was not even a close call.”

The idea that the prosecutor should automatically charge cases that are referred by police, “is not the world we want to live in,” Cornell said. “We have to be mindful of of applying facts faithfully to the law.”

Cornell stressed that deciding not to prosecute “doesn’t mean that it’s not concerning and that it didn’t certainly have racial overtones.”

Crank said that when such cases aren’t prosecuted, there is a sense in the Black community, “what is the point, if this happens to me, what would be the purpose of reporting it?”

“There’s almost the sense of giving others the opportunity to continue to do this because they are not going to get prosecuted,” Crank said. “They are not going to get charged because here are two things that were very public and nothing happened.”

A question then came from Mark Davis, who noted he was looking at the issue through his training as a professional engineer. “Is it the law itself that need to be rewritten to allow you to prosecute these things better?” he asked. “Are you hamstrung by the law itself?”

“We are given the law by the Legislature, so if all of you and your listeners are interested in changing the law with regard to hate crime offenses, then that’s something that needs to be taken up with the Legislature,” Cornell replied.

He then responding to Crank’s concerns, stating: “I would tell anybody in our community that if you feel you’ve been the victim of a crime, call the police. That is critically important.”

However, Cornell added, “I can’t prosecute people to send a message. That’s not what prosecutors do. It would be unethical for me to do that. I have to make decisions that are within the facts and the law.”

Cornell said that his office will continue to prosecute hate crimes “and we are also doing a ton of other stuff to address racial disproportionately in the criminal justice system.” These include expansion of alternatives to prosecution, work in juvenile court and at the felony level with mental health court and other alternatives, he said.

“We are doing everything that we can to address racial disproportionality as office and I’m darned proud to it,” Cornell said. “But what I don’t have the discretion to do is charge somebody for crime for which there are insufficient facts.”

In his wrap-up remarks, Woodard said he appreciated Cornell’s response, adding “I hope folks are actually hearing what you have to say. What it all comes down to is you all have a part to play, folks,” Woodard added. “Pressure comes from us.”

Thanking Crank for the opportunity to be on the panel, Karin Butler said that “conversation can only help us move forward.

“Hopefully we can move forward,” added Mark Davis. “Slowly, but move.”

Kilgore stressed the importance of communications, collaboration and building coalitions, listening and learning. “Everyone has a part to play,” she said.

You can see the live stream of Saturday’s event on the Alicia In Edmonds Facebook page

The next Black in Edmonds program, in two weeks, will focus on the health care system and how it impacts communities of color, Crank said.

–By Teresa Wippel