I want to thank the Federal Way Mirror for upholding the best in journalistic practice and seeking out the facts – and video evidence – before publishing an article about the incident at Todd Beamer High School and the subsequent Black Lives Matter clothing based Black Out arranged by the Black Student Union. Members of the community came to two meetings of the Federal Way Public Schools Board – some to provide much needed insight and some provided second and third hand accounts of what they believed to be the truth.

Two things that continue to linger in the minds of some community members need some added context so that the broader community can offer a more emphatic majority view. One regards the appropriateness of the action taken by the Federal Way Police Officer assigned that day as the school resource officer. The other regards what folks believe about Black Lives Matter. I’ll start with the latter. To me Black Lives Matter is a simple rallying cry to bring attention to the violence being leveled upon people of color due to discrimination. If the originators wanted to be more clear, maybe they would have added “too” or “also” so people didn’t feel offended and come back with All Lives Matter. Maybe Our Lives Matter would have been better so that people mourning the rock throwing Antonio Zambrano-Montes shot 17 times and in the back could express the sentiment along with those mourning Laquan McDonald who pranced about on a highway to be shot 16 times. Perhaps then people would not have felt compelled to begin Blue Lives Matter in response to what some believe is a movement against the police. The Black Student Union was merely bringing attention to the fear they feel as targets in a society still struggling with discrimination. Nada mas.

With regard to the Federal Way police officer, I don’t think his actions were bad or good – they just displayed how the protocols were set up – Col. Jessup calls the code red and the target is going down with trained force. The incident gave our Superintendent Dr. Tammy Campbell a chance to call time out and examine what’s wrong with this picture? That examination of what has evolved into what we had been asking of our police officers versus other ways of leveraging their presence in our schools included a dialog with the Federal Way Police Department. Do our families send their children to our schools to do 12 years hard labor? Do families want us to send their child to the cooler for 60 days every time they misbehave? Do we run Federal Way public prisons? Some community members voiced their concern that the school district was somehow against discipline. Discipline can be achieved in many ways. Do families want their child sent home to learn nothing and fall behind in their studies or might their child be better served learning the harm and fear they caused to others and the potential danger they could have faced by having their actions misinterpreted? That is the essence of restorative justice – treating scholars as people able to learn from their mistakes.

If families are sending their child to school for education, then we probably should ensure that our security protocols are set up to deal with scholars and not criminals. We should want scholars to learn from their triumphs and their mistakes. A zero tolerance law and order policy for perfect children getting things right the first time, every time; on time gives no room for growth and learning. Do families want their child to be in fear of authority and the police or should the police be given the opportunity to begin a lifelong friendship with the community starting with our scholars? This is all for community input. My hope is that the voices calling for strict disciplinary rule are either lacking proper context or in a very small minority in our community.

Hiroshi Eto, Federal Way