No, not The Babylon Bee, it's Seattle, Jake
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Schools reopen, surrounded by hobo camps that the School board refuses to clear. If there’s anything good that will come out of this panic, it’ll be the exposure of our public education system as the enemy that it is.
Seattle students will begin a return to in-classroom learning in April, but parents were left shocked after learning that homeless encampments, located on the grounds of two schools welcoming kids back, will likely remain even after the schools reopen.
“As students at Seattle Public Schools start to return for in-person learning following the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, the district continues to grapple with the presence of two homeless encampments that have taken root on a pair of the district’s campuses,” Seattle’s KOMO reported. ‘The presence of the encampments at Broadview Thomson K-8, located at 13052 Greenwood Ave., and Edmond S. Meany Middle School, located at 201 21st Ave., has stirred concern among parents and residents who live in the area. They are outraged that students will be back in class Monday and the district has not yet resolved what they describe as a dangerous problem.”
“Neighbors have been calling on Seattle Public Schools for months to remove the camp that they say has brought increasing problems to their neighborhood,” KOMO reported earlier this week. In February, they say, a woman died of an overdose in the camp, which, neighbors contend, has become a hotbed for illegal drug activity.
The city of Seattle has so far refused to move the camp because, city officials say, the camp is on the grounds of Seattle Public Schools, which must tackle the problem for itself or officially request help from the city of Seattle.
… [The School Board responds]
“The pandemic has deepened inequities, including access to housing. It is a crisis that Seattle must find a solution for and do so compassionately,” the district said in its own statement. “We are aware of an encampment near Broadview-Thomson K-8. While SPS owns property behind the school, the encampment is not on the Broadview-Thomson school campus. It is on the other side of a fence away from school grounds. Seattle Public Schools supports prompt outreach to residents, and efforts to identify long term solutions.”
Seattle reporter Jason Rantz noted that, in leaked emails, the school district actually refused to request the mayor’s office sweep the camps for illegal activity.
“Members of the Seattle School Board demanded the mayor’s office not sweep dangerous and growing homeless encampments on two school properties,” Rantz reported Tuesday. “Seattle School Board President Chandra Hampson and Director Zachary DeWolf tried to stop Mayor Jenny Durkan’s office from sweeping encampments near Meany Middle School on Capitol Hill, and at Broadview Thomson K-8 in Bitter Lake.”