St. Paul superintendent announces upped security at 5 schools after death of Harding High student

CATHY WURZER: We are going to go ahead and interrupt National Public Radio right now. We were, of course, talking about the lead story, which is the stabbing death of Devin Scott. He was a young man at St. Paul's Harding High School. We are expecting a news conference here shortly with St. Paul School Superintendent Joe Gothard. He's going to talk about the stabbing death. And here we are with Superintendent Gothard.

JOE GOTHARD: Schools board chair Jim Vue, Director of Office of Neighborhood Safety Brooke Blakey, Director of Security Emergency Management for St. Paul Public Schools, Lori Olson, Chief of Administration Jackie Turner, and Director of Family Engagement, Dana Abrams. Like many of you, I'm angry, I'm sad, I'm heartbroken, and emotions that continue to flood me with a young man that's gone, and also the violence that we're seeing in our community and in our schools.

There's nothing that can bring Devin back. And again, talking to his mother and his father last night, both the night of the incident and last night at a vigil that was held in his honor, the look in their eyes, I know as a school superintendent, is a look that I do not want to see again. The Harding High School staff where this incident took place are not in school again today for a second day.

Truthfully, you go into these things and you believe you have an idea for what is it going to take for a school community to come back together. I don't know that answer with definitiveness right now. They're still working. It will not be a normal week. It will not be a normal semester for the Harding community. It won't.

So we're going to continue to support them. The modified schedule that we will hold for students and families, for that matter, to come back is something that we continue to work on. But our focus has really been on that community and coming back together with support of our district team, and I also have to say, with supportive community partners who have been invaluable in this time of great grief.

Speaking of that, our partners in the city of St. Paul, we have rec centers open on the east side. They were open early today providing meals and support. To Harding students, we got a call earlier that there are students and a flurry of activities going on there. That's a really good thing. That's where students should be-- working together in our community in a positive way, in a safe space.

And as you all know, safety is a complicated subject. There's many right answers. And for us to land on one that is going to keep everybody safe, there's no quick solution to that. There's no quick fix. But I have to tell you, today, it doesn't mean that I can sit back. It doesn't mean that I can wait.

So as we announced yesterday, St. Paul Public Schools is taking some immediate steps to enhance security at Harding and four of our other high schools that have experienced acts of violence this year. These measures are in addition to the robust safety and security protocols that we have in place. We have school support liaisons who have been indispensable in the work that we do.

This team is wonderful. We'll be adding one additional SSL to Harding effective immediately. That change has already been made. And it's an important piece of who staff on the front lines are in terms of meeting students, meeting families, meeting new students, and making sure that they feel welcome, making sure that there's a relationship that's built, that's positive-- getting to know the students and how to help them thrive as learners and as being a member of a community.

They also have to respond immediately when there are violent incidents that take place. We had SSLs at Harding on Friday. We had many other staff that responded to something that, in my 29 years in education, I've never responded to. And I'm really appreciative of their response and their efforts.

And I know that they are feeling as low as one might imagine in this time. But in talking with them, I'm really proud of them and really happy that I can call them colleagues. Also effective yesterday, we have two officers from the St. Paul Police Department assigned to Harding as well as Washington Technology Magnet School, Central High School, Como Park Senior High, and Humboldt High School for the rest of the week.

And it's important to note this-- I've received some comments from the community already-- we do not currently have a contract with the St. Paul Police Department. And we haven't had one for the last three years, since June of 2020. However, I have to say under the leadership of the mayor, and former police chief, and current police chief, the partnership was never extinguished. The partnership never went away.

We do work together. We do partner together, sometimes in times that are very reactive. But I will tell you what the community doesn't see is the incredible work and communication that goes on behind the scenes between our school sites, between our district and the police, and between the police department and our varied partners throughout the community to make sure that we are staying safe, that we are communicating, that we are in this together. So I thank Chief Henry for his immediate response to the request from the school district.

I want to be clear that these immediate steps are the first step. We are not going to be able to prevent the challenges that our community is facing and that, sadly, sometimes come into our schools as well with one brief and quick swift action. It is going to take some ongoing communications, ongoing partnership, hearing from our community.

We need to get input from various community stakeholders-- our parents, our students, folks who have been in the community a lot longer than I have, that have a history here, that understand. And we have to bring people together. And one of the themes that I've been most comforted by-- and when I say, I, I mean our district-- I am the person but I represent the entire district-- is the number of people who have reached out to just say, what can I do to help?

It hasn't been, what are you doing? It's, what can I do to help? And that's a theme that I think I opened with or I shared Friday night in my plea to the community. And people have listened, and people are there, and they're ready.

So it's truly up to us. And I believe this as well. We as a district also can't just wait for people to come to us. I and the district have to get out into the community and meet our organizations, our families, our community where they're at. And we have to also create community in that way as well.

This is not a one-way street in terms of us expecting the community to do all of our work. We have to meet where our folks are, our students, our families, our staff, our community partners, and we have to do great work. And that's my commitment. That's my commitment for Devin, and his memory, and for 30,000 other amazing students in St. Paul Public Schools-- and also to make sure that our staff feels supported, they feel safe, and they feel like they're showing up to their school sites or their programs every day. And their expectation is to do great work. And I've done everything with this community possible to make sure that happens.

So again, I just want to share that through the St. Paul Police Department, the Office of Neighborhood Safety, so many other partners, the lift that you have given us in this short time since this tragic incident has been incredible. And we're going to need each other as we move forward together. And I'm grateful to you. With that, I have time for a few questions.

REPORTER: What steps are you considering in response to school safety concerns?

JOE GOTHARD: I think the steps that we're considering taking are not just response to one incident, they're response to what we're dealing with as a community right now. We've got to continue to engage our partners. We have to map out what partnerships we have and look for gaps in that continuum of support and look to shore that up.

And we have to look outside of ways that have worked in the past. If there's anything that we know right now, that trying to go back to this thing we call normal is a foregone conclusion. We really have to look at a way to rethink right now where we're at and make sure that we're meeting our students, and our families, and our community where they're at.

REPORTER: Superintendent, why did you choose these particular five schools for added security and the police presence outside?

JOE GOTHARD: I think, first of all, these are resources that are part of the city assets right now. So it's not as though they have an indispensable number of officers that they can deploy. We try to prioritize with incidents that you know well have taken place this year, where we have large areas, large schools, especially at dismissal times, that are sending thousands of students.

As I say all the time, our high schools are larger than 75% of cities in the state. And there's a lot of activity going on all times of the day, but especially at some of those high traffic areas. I'll also say this-- that in addition to being stationed there as a presence, the relationship is what's more important.

So the expectation that officers will be in regular contact with school staff, there could be an exchange of radios so that communication can go back and forth-- again, we now our staffing our schools at a level where we are asking our current staff to do everything in the continuum of school and safety support. And while 90%-- 95%, 97%-- of that is adequate and appropriate, there is a level of support that is required from time to time that we're just not equipped to do as a school staff. In my career in education, as a teacher, a principal, a coach, I've always relied on having a strong relationship with the police departments and the community partners that are willing to be part of that solution. And today is a chance for me to make that recommitment and to make sure that the community does know that.

REPORTER: How will the role and the function of these officers that will be there differ or be similar with what the SSLs did when they were there?

JOE GOTHARD: The school resource officers, our previous iteration of that, SROs-- so I think if you ask anyone who's in this work the way that I am, I don't want to speak for everyone, the most important thing for school resource officers is relationships. So these are not individuals -- successful SROs are not anyone who takes an assignment. They're very strategically placed, usually in combination between school, school staff, and the police department, to say that this individual wants to do this and this individual has a skill set that is very well equipped for juveniles, young people, and community. So it really does take a skill set.

And I know for a fact there are some officers that, no way, I don't want to work in a school as a routine or as an assignment. But there are others, and I'm sure Chief Henry would say the same thing, that would love the opportunity to engage with our youth in a role like this.

REPORTER: So officers will get [INAUDIBLE] kind of serving the same function as those that were in the prior program?

JOE GOTHARD: The officers that are there now will not serve in that way in terms of having a regular routine of walking the hallways of that school, responding to things that the school may need. The difference would be that if it does call for a police response, that they are there, they are ready, they're a familiar face to the administrative team, to the security and emergency management team-- so they're readily disposable to that group.

Currently, without having that gap in our system, we're relying on calling dispatch for support. And I can tell you that we know this, that sometimes the timing of that really puts us at a huge deficit. To be able to have resources right there, to have an officer who is stationed there be able to call on their radio to get the kind of support that's needed, the seconds and minutes really do add up in times of great need.

REPORTER: Would you support bringing SROs back to St. Paul schools? And would you support metal detectors [INAUDIBLE]

JOE GOTHARD: So two things about that-- the first is that SROs 2019-'20 doesn't have to look the same as it does in 2023. So it's my expectation and my desire to sit down with all of our partners-- the Office of Neighborhood Safety, the St. Paul Police Department-- and see if we can redefine what a formal partnership looks like with St. Paul Public Schools.

So if that's SRO with a new name or if that's some of what worked really well and some of the changes that all parties have agreed to, I'm willing to have that conversation. I think I was pretty clear in June of 2020 that I was very much in support of SROs, as were many in the community. But I also understood that there were varying perspectives on this.

And ultimately, I report to the Board of Education. And that was their decision. We did, in the interim, put together-- the SSLs, who I mentioned, are a result of that work. I knew that we couldn't just have a wide gap in our continuum of safety support, so we did and continue to put great resources, time, and effort into identifying people who can be that security liaison in our schools.

To metal detectors, I currently don't have a policy or a protocol. I don't have the equipment. So we would be starting from a blank slate in terms of metal detectors if that was to become a school-wide or a district-wide approach that we were going to take.

I think it's fair to say that, like any superintendent right now, I don't think you would talk to any of them who have been engaged in what they are and how they might be used. But I have not been able to get to a place where that's been a formal discussion at all yet.

REPORTER: You mentioned that two St. Paul officers will be stationed at those schools until the end of the week. Are there possibilities that could be extended or changed if situations change?

JOE GOTHARD: I will take this on. I'll let Chief Henry elaborate as well. This city and this department have been 110% responsive. So liken it to this-- just to give everyone a perspective for what we're talking about-- there are times right now where we have information that we receive for school events. It could be a basketball game, for example, where we have reason to believe that there are threats or information is being shared where we're like, we want to have a presence.

So we have that. That's already part of how we work with the police department. This is just for that more regular contact during the day. And I know right now that if I would call the mayor and/or chief, or our staff would, that they would have a great conversation about what this would look like in terms of extending it.

And I know they'd be supportive. Chief, I don't know if you want to elaborate.

MELVIN CARTER: Thank you all for being here. Thank you, superintendent. I appreciate that. My name is Melvin Carter. I'm the Mayor of the City of St. Paul. I want to just say first, thank you, superintendent. Thank you to our members of our school board and our school district administration for responding as decisively as you are to ensure our community that we take every step, every effort to ensure that our schools are safe.

Thank you, Chief Henry. Thank you, Director Blakey for stepping in and being a part of that partnership. The work that the superintendent just described is consistent with all of the work that we're doing in St. Paul right now, which is to field what we always talk about as the most comprehensive, coordinated, and data-driven approach to public safety ever. That comprehensive approach and coordinated approach is really critical, and it really rests on two core understandings.

One is that in our community every day, there are instances that really require the toolkit, the skills, the resources, and the training that our police officers bring to bear in our community. And we're greatly appreciative that they are there for us in those moments. Two is there are incidents that occur in our community every day that require, frankly, a different set of skills, a different set of background, a different set of training. And we put our police officers into a bad place, we put our community members into a bad place when we ask our police officers to respond to different types of events that require a different level of training, a different level of background.

In our city, we've talked with many of you in the past about how we have brought resources on board to provide a level of care for members who experience homelessness. We've brought on a level of care for individuals who are experiencing mental or chemical health crises. This is, I think, very consistent with-- this partnership we're describing today, I think, is very consistent with that strategy that says we want to ensure that people always know that there are St. Paul police officers who are plugged in, who are aware, who are connected, who are ready to respond when and if our community requires that.

And we're not just asking them to solve all of our problems for us. We're building robust teams around them such that the officers have the backup that they need as well to be able to connect people, and our young people as well to the resources that they need. So I want to thank all of the partners for being a part of this. Like the superintendent, I spent time with the Scott family yesterday.

No parent should ever-- no parent should ever have to bury their child. That's one of the most horrific possibilities imaginable. And we spent time with them. They spent some time telling us about Devin. And we know that we have work to do to ensure that we're taking every step possible to ensure that we never have to endure this hardship, this trauma ever again in our community.

So I want to thank you all for being here. And thank you for the folks who make up this large partnership. We have work to do. And, frankly, that work didn't start last week and that work doesn't end with the partnership that we're laying out today because I'm proud to live in a community where we all know, and everyone in my administration, everyone in this school district administration knows that the work of keeping our young people safe is truly never complete. It's never enough.

We're never done and moving on to the next thing. So I just wanted to interject that. Chief Henry, if you had something to add.

AXEL HENRY: So to circle back to the core of that question, we have a plan in place for the next five days of the school week. That, obviously, isn't going to evaporate come Friday. This is just buying us some time to take a look at how we are going to approach this going forward.

The police department and the city stands ready to contribute and try to create public safety, but also in helping people. That's the core of what we do. And so we are looking at that right now. This is giving some time to have some conversations.

And I think really what's going to happen, and I won't speak for Director Blakey, but we're looking to co-produce a model with the school system, with the city, with the Office of Neighborhood Safety, and with the police department to figure out how we best bring about all of the assets in the city to contribute to safety for our young folks and for everybody, for that matter. And so we will have assistance and we stand ready to help 24/7 as long as the school district needs it to create that time so we can have those conversations about creating what that new future looks like.

I think he's 100% right. The old model was a different environment then. We're not looking to go back and turn on a light switch or dust something off that comes out of the broom closet. The current model, obviously, is something that we need to improve. So we're going to build that future model.

But we're staying committed. We're at the table. And we're a part of the conversation, and we're committed to help.

REPORTER: One more question.

REPORTER: Could you give us some of the things that you're exploring with that model, some hard examples of some of the conversations that revolve around that model that you're talking about?

AXEL HENRY: Yeah. So for those that aren't aware, Director Blakey, obviously, as we know, runs the Office of Neighborhood Safety in St. Paul. And there's a program, Project Peace, that we are doing. We in the St. Paul Police Department are a part of that program.

So if you think of Project Peace as being this over umbrella and then they have all these different resources that come down for it. Our officers, who work for the ASPIRE which is a Saint Paul Intervention Recovery Effort, are a part of that program. And so they already work and have conversations and relationships with the schools.

And so what I imagine is-- I think it's too soon to say, and, again, I'm one piece of a big pie of contributors to this for me to get up here and dictate what that would look like-- but I imagine that's probably something that will be greatly involved in that as that ASPIRE program. And, really, our work with the Office of Neighborhood Safety, I think, is the umbrella for all of those efforts as we go forward, particularly in our schools.

REPORTER: [INAUDIBLE] students expect as they go back tomorrow in terms of mental health resources and trauma support?

JOE GOTHARD: Thank you. What an appropriate way to, as we come to an end here-- again, hearts go out to the Harding community spending. Our staff has spent a great deal of time there. And as you can imagine, the emotions are really heavy.

I don't know that we'll have a normal schedule for the remainder of this week. I think it's become apparent that for a number of reasons, we have to rethink how we reintegrate students back into the school, and families too. And I think I'd be fooling myself if I said let's just have an open house and have everyone come back in. So we really have to look for intentional ways to truly embrace and involve families who choose to be part of that reunification.

So I don't have that schedule right now. That's something that if the school puts out and shares publicly, they will. But most importantly, knowing that they are communicating, and working together, and then communicating with their families, we will support them however we need to. To your question about mental health supports, again, yesterday and spending time there, there were people showing up to the school that were ready and on the spot to help. First, the adults, knowing that they're going to need to support the students too.

CATHY WURZER: You've been listening to a live news conference with St. Paul School Superintendent Joe Gothard on the stabbing death of 15-year-old Devin Scott in the hallways of Harding High School last Friday. Gothard talked about beefed up security at Harding and at other schools in the district in the wake of the stabbing by increasing a police presence at certain schools, including inclusion of school resource officers. You may remember school resource officers were pulled from St. Paul schools after the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020.

The St. Paul Teachers Union has been vocal in its concerns over school and staff safety. We reached out to them to find out more, but they declined our invitation. Another piece to this story-- the Ramsey County Attorney's office today filed charges against a 16-year-old student in Devin Scott's stabbing death.

The 16-year-old suspect now faces one count of murder in the second degree. He's due to make his initial appearance this afternoon at the Ramsey County Juvenile Center in St. Paul. Matt Sepic was just at the news conference with Superintendent Gothard and he's on the line right now. Matt.

MATT SEPIC: Hi there, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Say, before I start asking you about the charges with this young 16-year-old suspect, I want to just kind of dive a little bit deeper. What did you hear in Superintendent Gothard's news conference that seemed fresh to you? Are they bringing back the school resource officers again?

MATT SEPIC: Well, there is certainly discussion about more security at the St. Paul Public Schools, as we heard in the news conference and as the school district announced yesterday. There are police officers being stationed outside of five of the largest high schools in St. Paul, including Harding on the east side, to provide an immediate response, the district says, in case there is any sort of trouble or officers are needed.

But unlike the school resource officers of the past, they will not be stationed in the school. However, at Harding at least, they have added a third full-time support specialist to aid with security. And these specialists, these liaisons they're called, they don't carry guns, they're not armed, they're not police officers, but they do have handcuffs and pepper spray. And they are trained to deal with these types of situations when they come up.

CATHY WURZER: OK. So circling back, then, to what the Ramsey County attorney has done here this afternoon, filing charges against the 16-year-old suspect-- what do you know about that?

MATT SEPIC: Well, Cathy, I just took a very brief look through the juvenile petition-- the juvenile version of a criminal complaint. And it offers some more details about what happened last Friday inside Harding High School. It says the incident was captured by multiple surveillance cameras.

And one of these videos, according to the complaint, shows Devin and another student walking with a girl in the hallway. And as they approach another hallway intersection, the suspect and Devin begin to exchange words. And there was a third student involved with this altercation as well, according to the complaint.

And one school staff member tried to break it up. And that's when the suspect allegedly pulled out a knife and ran at Devin with it. And the school officials, staff there, tried life-saving measures. But obviously, they were unable to give Devin the help that he needed.

CATHY WURZER: So the suspect faces one count of murder in the second degree. That's the charges I see here in front of me from the Ramsey County Attorney's Office. Do we suspect that prosecutors might try to certify the 16-year-old as an adult?

MATT SEPIC: Not sure yet, Cathy, but that's often what happens in these cases. 16 and 17-year-olds are juveniles according to the criminal justice system. But when you have charges as serious as second degree murder, it is often the case that the prosecution team will ask a judge to certify the defendant to be prosecuted as an adult in adult court with adult punishment.

CATHY WURZER: All right. Matt Sepic, I know that you're off to yet another piece of this story. I appreciate your time, though. Thank you so much.

MATT SEPIC: You're welcome, Cathy.