Two teens fatally shot at Seattle public school as police still banned from campuses

The fatal shooting of two high school students last week has intensified pressure on Seattle Public Schools to reverse its ban on police officers on campus, as families question how much more violence students must endure before policy changes.

Monday night, authorities identified the victims as 17-year-old Traveiah Houfmuse and Tyjon Stewart, who were shot multiple times in a double homicide on Friday outside Seattle’s Rainier Beach High School. Police confirmed that both victims were students at the school. No arrests have been made, and investigators have not said whether the shooting was gang-related.

The killings come amid a broader spike in youth violence across Seattle and arrive after the Seattle School Board previously voted 5–2 against bringing police back to Garfield High School, despite a year marked by shootings, weapons incidents, and lawsuits alleging systemic safety failures. Seattle Public Schools eliminated School Engagement Officers (SEOs) in 2020 following the George Floyd riots, arguing that police presence contributed to racial disparities in discipline. Since then, critics say, the district has struggled to contain escalating threats.

At Garfield High School alone, 17-year-old Amarr Murphy-Paine was killed in June 2024 while trying to break up a fight outside campus. His family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit accusing SPS of ignoring repeated safety warnings and failing to follow its own emergency protocols. On the same day as his killing, a student fired an airsoft gun at a teacher, and another fled campus after refusing a backpack search for a suspected weapon.

A 17-year-old girl was shot at a Garfield bus stop, a student was shot inside Ingraham High School in 2023, and in 2021, Ingraham students were threatened with an AR-15. During the pandemic, a violent homeless encampment was allowed to operate on the campus of Broadview-Thompson K-8 even after shootings following students returning to classrooms.

Despite these incidents, the school board has repeatedly rejected reinstating police, instead expanding the use of unarmed security guards and safety specialists trained in de-escalation.