Ingraham High School seeks federal funds to cope with repercussions of school shooting

As a new schoolyear begins, Seattle's Ingraham High School is applying for nearly half a million dollars in federal funding to help it rebound from last November's deadly school shooting, in which one student was killed.

In its grant application Seattle Public Schools said, “The impact the shooting has had on students’ learning as well as student and staff wellbeing is beyond what could have been imagined. Review of the data suggests Ingraham students and staff are hurting. However, with adequate resources and support, we can get back to a routine of consistency, predictability, and structure within the Ingraham school community.”

According to the application, the largest single priority for the $494,000 federal grant would be the ongoing salary for a full-time “house administrator,” a staff member in charge of holding reentry meetings with students who have been disciplined and creating safety plans, among other duties. That position was hired last year.

The grant would also fund an additional security specialist, and resources to contract with community-based, culturally responsive mental health supports.

The Seattle Public School Board voted Wednesday to accept the money from the U.S. Education Department’s School Emergency Response to Violence initiative, or Project SERV, if the federal government approves the grant and awards the funding. An SPS spokesperson said there's no set timeline for that decision.

RELATED: About the gun that killed a boy at Seattle’s Ingraham High School

Seventeen-year-old Ebenezer Haile died on the campus of the North Seattle school Nov. 8, 2022 after being shot by a fellow student. A student who was 14 at the time has been charged with first-degree murder and assault in Haile’s death. Another student was also arrested and charged in connection with the shooting.

KUOW reporters traced the history of the gun that was used that day at Ingraham High School.

According to the Seattle Public Schools’ grant application seeking federal assistance, “After police and school administration determined the school environment was safe, students were led to the auditorium for reunification with their families. The grueling reunification process took over two hours. Students and staff were crying, hungry, and in disbelief. You could see the impact and trauma the shooting already was having on the Ingraham community. The school shooting was also coming days after another Ingraham student had overdosed and died.”

The shooting continued to reverberate throughout the rest of the school year. During the remainder of the schoolyear, officials say Ingraham saw drops in attendance and academic performance, especially among seniors, and spikes in mental health referrals and disciplinary incidents including threats to others. The school also had an increased number of staff on leave.

The federal Project SERV grants are intended to help educational institutions “recover from a violent or traumatic event in which the learning environment has been disrupted.”

Some Ingraham students said they would be glad to see more funding to promote student welfare. But they also say they will keep campaigning for changes at the school in the wake of Haile’s death. C. Makar-Witucki is an incoming senior and a member of the Seattle Student Union. That group campaigned for more funding for mental health services, and already obtained $4.5m from the city of Seattle to go toward services across several schools.

“We’re happy that we have that victory, but we have yet to see it pay off, and we don’t want it to just be an empty promise,” Makar-Witucki said, adding that their group has plans to release the results of a student survey and to meet with SPS Superintendent Brent Jones later in September.

Marta Sisay, another incoming senior and student union member, said, “A lot of other people have just moved past [Haile’s death], which is kind of frustrating for us.”

“We still have trauma from it,” Makar-Witucki said. “There’s a single bleached tile in the hallway where that student died. I want to have a permanent memorial for our students – he was part of our community and we loved him and cared about him.”

They said that including Haile there were four Ingraham students who died before they could graduate last June – the senior breakfast observed several minutes of silence to remember them. SPS officials said in their grant application that Haile’s death occurred “days after another Ingraham student had overdosed and died.”

Friends of Ingraham is the school's parent-teacher support organization. The group's president is Kathleen Zagers. She welcomed the news of the formal request for federal funding, saying, "We're glad school administrators and the district understand there was trauma for students and staff, and that they're being proactive in seeking funding to provide solutions."

Correction 09/01/2023: A previous version of this story said incorrectly that SPS had already been awarded the federal grant funding for Ingraham High School. No grant award has been made at this time.