One year after killing of Garfield High School student, questions remain about student safety
Jun 6, 2025, 6:02 PM
The front of Garfield High School in Seattle's Central District, where flowers, candles, letters, signs and more were left to honor 17-year-old Amarr Murphy-Paine. (Photo courtesy of KIRO 7)
(Photo courtesy of KIRO 7)
Friday marks one year since Garfield High School student Amarr Murphy-Paine was fatally shot while trying to break up a lunchtime fight outside a school building.
Questions remain about how best to protect students.
Fred Podesta, chief operations officer for Seattle Public Schools, has proposed reinstating school resource officers.
“We’re hearing from the community, as they have concerns about whether our officers are going to get involved in discipline or policing students, and that is not the intent of such a program,” Podesta said. “It’s to make schools safer, to build relationships—not to supplant school staff. We have security personnel at schools, we have administrators who work on student issues. This is really to have a liaison to the police department when we have community-based risks that come onto school campuses, as happened a year ago.”
The idea was presented to the Seattle School Board this week, with discussions expected to continue over the summer.
Garfield High School increases security
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In the year since Murphy-Paine’s killing, security at Garfield has increased.
“The number of SPS Safety and Security Specialists has doubled this year, and the district added contract security staff to help monitor the perimeter of the building,” Seattle Public Schools Chief of Staff Bev Redmond said in a statement. “SPS has also made physical improvements, including a secure vestibule at the front entrance, upgrades to exterior doors and added monitoring systems.”
Seattle Council PTSA co-president Sebrena Burr remembers the aftermath of the shooting well. She told The Seattle Times that district and community leaders made “a lot of promises” right after the shooting.
“But where are we now? … I’ve been doing this for a long time, and our kids are more unsafe now than they have ever been,” Burr told the Times.
No arrests have been made in Murphy-Paine’s killing.
Frank Lenzi is the News Director for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here.
