(Left to right) Members of the Portland Public Schools Board of Education Michelle DePass, Herman Greene, Gary Hollands and Julia Brim-Edwards, listen to testimony from a PPS student and parent, at the PPS district offices in Portland in this Nov. 28, 2023 file photo.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
Portland students are tired of hearing about another school shooting, another threat of violence, and wondering when it might happen to them.
Within the first weeks of the new school year, there have been at least eight known school shooting threats in the Portland area, according to the Oregon Alliance for Gun Safety. In 2023, there were at least six shootings near schools in the broader Portland metro area.
These incidents occurred around the same time as politically driven threats affected schools in Springfield, Ohio, and just after the fatal shooting that killed two students and two teachers at Georgia’s Apalachee High School in early September.
Students want Oregon’s largest school district to help stop it.
Jorge Sanchez-Bautista, a senior at McDaniel High School, and Naomi Basaca, an eighth-grader at Laurelhurst School, testified to the Portland school board Tuesday night, later submitting a petition addressed to district and state leaders that was signed by roughly 250 students from across the state.
“Most people like myself understand that this isn’t just a local problem but a national matter,” Sanchez-Bautista said. “[School shootings and violence] has become so common that when we see it on the news, we’re not even shocked or surprised, but we’re just like, ‘Okay, this is sad,’ you know? Like, ‘We need to do something about it.’”
They’re calling for five specific actions.
McDaniel High School student Jorge Sanchez-Bautista, left, testifying at a PPS school board meeting Nov. 28, 2023. Sanchez-Bautista appeared before the school board again Oct. 8, 2024, to ask for their help addressing gun violence.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
First, they want districts, including Portland, to support students with trauma-informed practices during lockdowns and drills.
Sanchez-Bautista gave an example of a lockdown that took place last year at McDaniel. He couldn’t remember if it was a bomb or gun threat, but he recalled students being on lockdown for about a half hour. It turned out to be nothing serious.
“Afterwards, we were directed to just go back to class as if nothing had happened,” Sanchez-Bautista said. “And within an hour of the new period starting, we had over 300 students leave campus — not as a protest, but just, like, ‘I don’t want to be here after, you know, this had happened.’ ”
The students are also calling for increased mental health support for students, including having more social workers who reflect all student backgrounds.
In the 2022-23 school year, the state’s latest data for the district, 166 counselors, 52 social workers and 54 psychologists were working across Portland Public Schools, serving more than 44,000 students. That same year, the majority of PPS teachers, 77%, identified as white compared to just over half, 55%, of the students.
The third request is for the district to implement “place-based improvements” to enhance school safety. Saerom Yoo with the Oregon Alliance for Gun Safety told OPB that this refers to physical conditions like lighting and maintenance of public spaces. When maintained, Yoo said, these measures address the root causes of violence and foster a “sense of safety and belonging” that ultimately leads to a decrease in gun-related violence.
Next, the students called on the school board to push the state to raise Oregon’s minimum age to purchase semi-automatic long guns to 21 as part of the district’s advocacy priorities for the upcoming 2025 legislative session.
After the students’ comments, the board voted to approve their legislative agenda on a 7-0 vote. The board didn’t revise it to add this suggestion, but it does include a line saying they will partner with local groups to “support efforts to reduce gun violence.” The advocacy priorities also list “funding to meet the mental health needs of our students, school staff, and teachers by increasing the number of school-based counselors, psychologists, social workers, and other mental health professionals.”
Lastly, the students want the district to require schools to distribute information on secure weapons storage.
“Time and time again, school shootings bring anxiety to students of all ages, making it hard to concentrate in school,” Basaca told the school board. “It’s time for a change. It’s time for teachers, administrators, district and state lawmakers to make our schools a place where we are and feel safe.”
Board members often don’t respond to public testimony during meetings. In this case, a handful did.
Director Gary Hollands reminded the board that students gave the district recommendations a couple of years ago when participating in a safety task force that he would like to revisit. Chair Eddie Wang stressed that lockdown drills shouldn’t have to be as normalized as they’ve become. Student Representative JJ Kunsevi thanked his peers for speaking up.
Director Herman Greene emphasized that a list of recent local incidents in the district that Sanchez-Bautista shared earlier was by no means exhaustive.
“We know that there are a lot more shootings that are happening within a one-mile radius of our schools that we don’t like to talk about,” he said. “And a mile is too close.”