Two years ago on Nov. 8, 2022, high school student Ebenezer Haile was fatally shot five times in the halls of Ingraham High School, less than a mile from Lakeside. Since then, families from Ingraham and students in Washington have pushed for laws restricting guns and new safety protocols in schools.
Around Seattle, schools took greater security measures to ensure the safety of their students. With the policy changes that came with the leadership of Dr. Kai Bynum, Lakeside started a national search for a new role in our school: the Director of Community Safety, which Mr. David Buerger filled.
Most Lakesiders have a vivid memory of that tragic day. Students in Mr. Huston’s science class in the Middle School still remember when the announcement blared over the speakers. At first, everyone assumed it was a drill, but panic and confusion ensued when the PA system informed them that an armed threat was in the area. They huddled under tables as teachers locked the doors and windows.
Without adequate information, they and so many others spent the next few hours in fear. One student recalls a helicopter flying by and sirens in the area. Although the Lakeside community remained safe, Ingraham students close to us were not so lucky.
Gun regulations and school shootings are arguably America’s youths’ greatest adversity. According to CNN, as of Sept. 19, 2024, there have been 50 school shootings this year alone. With these staggering numbers, in today’s world, these shootings are almost normalized, yet with every one of these tragic events, countless victims are impacted detrimentally. Two years ago at Ingraham, 17-year-old Haile was the victim.
Mr. Buerger has thoughts about what we can do to protect more students from this fate. As the Director of Community Safety, he oversees the Middle School, Upper School, and Downtown School, unveiling measures to keep the community safe. Before joining Lakeside, he worked as a police officer in Maryland, both on the force and in the classroom, educating students on initiatives such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, or DARE.
Since assuming his role at Lakeside, Mr. Buerger has launched several new safety initiatives on campus. Among these include fostering a relationship with the Seattle Police Department, to increase their familiarity with campus and ability to assist in emergencies. Another step has been the installation of automatic locks on all campus doors, meaning that if a door is propped open or a building is left unattended, the school is notified immediately.
The administration can now electronically and remotely lock the doors, something not possible two years ago, but which could, in the event of an emergency, potentially save lives.
Other precautions such as earthquake, lockdown, and shelterin-place drills are more frequently practiced, so students and staff have a structured plan in any scenario, and widespread communication is facilitated through the Titan HST app.
In addition to these changes to safety at Lakeside, Mr. Buerger and the administration have also begun an ongoing conversation with security at Ingraham, allowing the two schools to be constantly aware of potential threats and ensuring that, in Mr. Buerger’s words, Lakeside maintains “a good pulse on the community and what’s going on around us at any time.” In an emergency, combining all of these steps towards communication and awareness could be the pivotal difference in students’ well-being.
To this point, Buerger reiterates that through the changes made to Lakeside’s campus safety, administration, and campus safety officials gain “the advantage that could give us time to get together as a leadership and decide how we are going to react.” In the past two years, these changes, along with others, have been made to Lakeside’s campus safety. With Dr. Bynum’s changes to the school, Mr. Buerger brings these valuable initiatives and wisdom. Lakesiders should strive to keep victims like Haile in our thoughts and work for a better future.
