Police respond to report of gun at Denny International Middle School (updated Monday)

| Crime | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

ORIGINAL FRIDAY REPORT: Police responded to Denny International Middle School around 11 am today after a report of a possible gun on campus. We don’t have confirmation yet that a gun or other weapon was actually found, but Seattle Public Schools did provide this letter that Denny’s principal Mary Ingraham subsequently sent to the school community:

Dear Denny Families and Staff,

Our school is committed to ensuring the safety of our students and staff. I want to share with you an incident within our school today.

This morning, we received reports that a student had a weapon on campus. We immediately called the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and the SPS Safety and Security team. School administrators were with all students involved from the time of the report until it was resolved. There remains an increased security presence this afternoon, but classes have continued as normal.

Please know that we take safety in our buildings very seriously. Any threat made by a student that impacts the safety and security of our students will have an immediate response from myself and district staff.

We appreciate our students and staff for their vigilance and quick reporting, as well as the swift response from our security team and law enforcement partners.

Maintaining a safe learning environment is our highest priority, and we encourage everyone to continue sharing any concerns with school staff and administrators. Any community member or student can also use the SPS Safe Schools Hotline 206-252-0510 to report any threats to our school. This phone number is managed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year-round.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. I will be happy to speak with you directly.

Thank you for your support in keeping our school safe.

Sincerely,
Principal Mary Ingraham
Denny International Middle School

We have asked both SPS and SPD for more information.

ADDED 2:30 PM MONDAY: We asked SPD whether a gun was actually found and whether anyone was arrested; their reply, “Officers arrived at the school and the suspect student had already been released to go home. The victim was interviewed and stated that a handgun was seen. All parties have been identified, and Gun Violence Reduction Unit will be investigating the incident.” We haven’t heard from SPS but SPD’s reply raises a few other questions so we’ll be asking again.

Alki resident March 21, 2025 (4:23 pm)

SPS still refuses to install metal detectors at the entrances. They’ll wait for tragedy to occur before they take action. It’s a Seattle thing.

K March 21, 2025 (4:59 pm)

I attended schools back east with metal detectors. They didn’t stop weapons from coming in. The district has such a big budget shortfall they were talking about closing schools. If there was even a whisper of closing a school while spending money on performative security, taxpayers and activists would be up in arms. SPS isn’t dragging their feet, they’re doing the best they can with what they have.
CarDriver March 21, 2025 (5:03 pm)

That will be a guarantee that all guns-ghost included will be caught?
- Westseattlej March 22, 2025 (9:06 am)
  
  They are called Ghost Guns lol not guns ghost
Eric1 March 21, 2025 (5:37 pm)

When the results of electronic searches will contradict you the answers you want, you need to adhere to the policy of: Don’t look, don’t find.
- CarDriver March 21, 2025 (6:22 pm)
  
  So, “looking” will be a 100% guarantee of safety?
Curtis March 21, 2025 (5:44 pm)

They also still refuse to bring back the resource officers. Already one child was killed with zero accountability or justice.
Frog March 21, 2025 (5:49 pm)

I don’t think you really thought that through. Every student now days carries a phone and computer, so every student would trigger a metal detector every time they pass through. Having something like a TSA checkpoint at every entrance would be very labor intensive, very costly, and very time-wasting for students standing in line waiting to be screened.
- Alki resident March 21, 2025 (6:16 pm)
  
  No they wouldn’t FROG. You put everything metal on the table and then get searched by detector. Pretty cut and dry. They’ve been doing it for years in Colorado schools. I’ve seen it first hand and it works very well. They waited until tragedy happened to do all of this. If Colorado can afford it, Washington certainly can too.
- Gay March 21, 2025 (6:32 pm)
  
  Many of these comments are ever that thought through.
P March 21, 2025 (8:55 pm)

Seems like a state level concern; not just a Seattle School District issue. Search and another school in King County area had a student bring a gun to school a month ago…

North Admiral Neighbor March 21, 2025 (4:55 pm)

Given how rare fatal school shootings are it would instill more fear in children to have to go through a metal detector every day just to go to school. We should focus more on the root causes of why kids would feel endangered enough at school to need to bring a weapon rather than trying to catch them with metal detectors when it’s already too late the kid has a gun. My guess is that SPS simply doesn’t have the budget to have a full time employee to stop and frisk students who fail the metal detector due to things like jewelry or keys.

Alki resident March 21, 2025 (9:11 pm)

Kids don’t “ fear” going through metal detectors..Just like an airport, they have to take anything metal out onto a table and go through detectors. Other states have this system and it works great. Nothing to be scared about. It’s not that difficult to keep everyone safe.

West Seattle Resident March 21, 2025 (5:29 pm)

They don’t even have security in every school nor cameras

concerned parent March 22, 2025 (11:48 am)

So: was a weapon found or not, did the kid and their parents get consequences? Did the police search their homes for more weapons, and their social media for anything threatening, etc etc? It’s incredibly frustrating that every time there is an incident, there is basically zero info shared with the rest of the community. Kids have a right to feel safe in their school and it start with accountability. The fact that a kids from that school was recently shot dead in a close-by community center, that the police knows who was with him and that there has been basically zero consequence or investigation (at least from the info that was released to the public) is unnacceptable.

WSB March 22, 2025 (12:32 pm)

I asked those questions to both SPS and SPD and did not get answers by day’s end, so they’re on my list again for Monday.

B March 23, 2025 (12:42 am)

Again, as parent of a CSIHS student…did not receive any time of information pertaining to this happening on Friday. Nada. Consistent failure of SPS, again and again, at these two schools (DIMS/CSIHS) sharing a campus.

Sealthmom March 23, 2025 (8:11 am)

This was the first I heard of it no contact from Sealth.

Sealth/Denny neighbor March 24, 2025 (1:53 pm)

Hi there! Has SPS or police provided an update on this? I feel like this should be a transparent matter between administrations and parents. Thanks!

WSB March 24, 2025 (2:19 pm)

I received a small amount of additional info from SPD that I’m adding above. Bottom line, though, no one has yet confirmed the actual existence of a gun.

SealthDenny March 25, 2025 (7:09 am)

Please keep asking SPS for answers. Sealth has not said anything to parents or students. Typically there is a joint statement from both schools sent out for incidents on the shared campus.

Sorry, comment time is over.