King County launches ‘Safer Schools Strategy’ aiming to prevent tragedies

The 2022 tragic shooting at Ingraham High School shook the Seattle community to its core.

Almost a year and a half later, local leaders are looking for ways to make sure something like that never happens again.

On Tuesday, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office launched the “Safer Schools Strategy,” providing new safety resources for districts with the goal of preventing tragedies.

“It’s our philosophy that the more information that the schools have that the better they can safety plan,” said Jamie Kvistad, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for KCPAO and Safer Schools Strategy Lead.

Kvistad helped develop the new program. For the past year, she has been talking with school districts and learning about the resources they need.

“I think King County is unique because we have so many districts, and the districts are all sort of different, so their needs are different, and we’ve really kind of tried to adapt what our involvement will be so that we can meet the district where it needs,” said Kvistad.

This new program will also provide training for school resource officers.

“We are notifying the schools when a student is charged with a felony involving a firearm in the community… We’re providing information about court conditions that the student might be on, we’re also making sure the school has a way to reach the probation officer,” said Kvistad.

Kvistad says she handles all the school threat cases and is the prosecutor on the 2022 Ingraham High School shooting.

“When something like that happens it definitely motivates to try and avoid that at all costs,” said Kvistad.

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