If you couldn’t make it to Madison Middle School last night for the PTA-organized presentation by/discussion with Seattle Police and Parks personnel, no worries, we recorded it on video. (No slide decks, so you can just listen to it in the background by playing the video, too.)

Starting at about 4 minutes in (after an introduction by PTA president Carla Rogers), the first presenter was SPD’s local Crime Prevention Coordinator Mark Solomon, who gave an overview of the situation – since the first of the year, in the Southwest Precinct‘s coverage area (West Seattle/South Park), police have investigated 17 incidents in which youth were targeted. Most of the robbers stole their victims’ cell phones; Solomon stressed the importance of not going around openly using your electronics. Most of them were, like their victims, youths, he said. He answered lots of questions about what advice to give kids, both about prevention and about what to do if something happens. Then at about 32 minutes in, Seattle Parks security supervisor Marlan Teeters spoke. His part of the discussion included community-center lockdown policies. And at about 49 minutes in, Madison principal Dr. Robert Gary spoke about school policies and procedures – including an explanation of “shelter in place” vs. “lockdown,” and also why parents will likely hear about one or the other before the school gets a robo-call or other notification out. Dr. Gary also talked about traffic/pedestrian safety outside the school and said they’re working with SDOT on ways to calm the morning traffic, in particular.

P.S. Find out more about the Madison PTA here.