On Monday morning, students and staff at Redmond High School (RHS) arrived on campus to find the main entry covered in sidewalk-chalk writing.

The messages were in response to the St. Louis County grand jury’s decision to not indict officer Darren Wilson after he shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in August in Ferguson, Mo. One read, “RHS stands with Ferguson,” while another read, “Black lives matter.” Others referenced statistics about black men, crime and the police.

PEACE OFFICERS

These messages have not been the only way the Redmond community has responded to the events in Ferguson.

On Nov. 25 — the day after the grand jury decision was announced — the Redmond Youth Partnership Advisory Committee (RYPAC) hosted a discussion on the topic.

About 10 people attended, including a few teens, City of Redmond staff members and officers from the Redmond Police Department (RPD).

“When the verdict came out, we checked in with teens to see how they were doing and suggested we offer a space to have an open discussion and they were for it,” said Ken Wong, teen program administrator for the City of Redmond.

RYPAC youth chair Madison Minsk, who organized the forum, said it was especially helpful to have Redmond police officers participate and listen to their concerns. The Tesla STEM High School senior said the officers shared “helpful insights about policing in our community and nationwide.”

RPD officer AnnMarie Fein was one of those officers in attendance at last week’s forum. She said they discussed a number of things, including the fact that when police officers in Washington graduate from the state police academy, they are called “peace officers,” not commissioned police officers. Fein said this emphasizes the fact that the police are not there to put people in handcuffs, but to try to resolve a situation in a peaceful manner.

Officers must rely on their training, she said, which teaches them to assess a situation before acting and work to ensure the safety of those in the surrounding area — this includes when dealing with a suspect who has a history of violence or may be displaying threatening posture.

“You want to affect the situation with as little force necessary,” Fein said.

Regarding the situation in Ferguson, she said it is not fair to judge what happened without reading all of the court documents.

PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS

One of the major issues that has been discussed around the country since the grand jury decision last week is that of race.

RHS sophomore Jude Ahmed, who has been following the events of Ferguson since the summer, appreciates the diversity of Redmond, but she said there is still some racial disparity.

This can be seen in some people’s responses to the chalk writing in front of RHS.

Some of those who didn’t appreciate the messages took the opportunity to respond with their own messages. A few of the additional statements called Brown a criminal and claimed, “Black people are abusing their blackness.”

Ahmed, who is of Egyptian descent, described the additional messages — which appeared sometime throughout the school day on Monday — as blind anger and a refusal to see the other side. She said people are looking at one situation and saying it is not a big deal, when to her, it is. And for Ahmed, it hits close to home because of her family’s background.

“How might people see my dad?” she asked. “How might people see my uncle?”

Ahmed also put herself in Brown’s shoes and considered what people might say and think about her if she were shot by police. She said because she is Muslim, it would be possible that people would call her a terrorist.

“There’s a growing number of people who are starting to suffer,” she said about the country’s racial disparities.

‘IT JUST IS’

Redmond resident Janet Richards said because of what has been going on around the country — from the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, to Brown’s death in August and other instances of unarmed black men — she and her husband have discussed how they will have to talk with their three kids as they get older. Richards, whose oldest daughter is three years away from college, said because they are black, a mistake they make may not have the same result for someone who is not black.

“There’s more risk,” she said, adding that being respectful to the police doesn’t always feel like enough. “That needs to factor into their thinking.”

She said it is not a matter of what is fair or not fair, “it just is.” This being said, she admitted that while she feels safe in Redmond, there are certain areas in the country she would not advise her children to visit.

Richards also brought up the ongoing gun debate in the country and a person’s right to the ability to protect themselves. She asked, how much evidence is needed to justify someone’s need to protect themselves?

“The level of evidence for someone with my skin has gone way down,” she said.

STILL NOT EQUAL

Ahmed said the fact that some people are not acknowledging that there is a problem is terrifying.

Jenni Martinez agreed that there is still progress to be made when it comes to race relations. The RHS senior, who is president of the school’s Latinos Unidos club, said there are still people — teachers and students alike — who can be culturally ignorant and insensitive through their comments and actions. Martinez said she still hears the term “illegal” used sometimes, rather than undocumented, in reference to immigration. Another example she has come across has been the surprise some people show when they see minority students enrolled in advanced classes, doing well in regular classes or even just showing up to class.

“We’re all equally capable,” Martinez said.

Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke at the Washington STEM Summit 2014 on Tuesday at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond and stressed the important role teachers and coaches play in young people’s lives.

“We fight today for an amazing sense of justice,” he said, briefly touching on the topic of Ferguson. “Too many of our youth are locked up and not lifted up.”

Jackson said “the Lord has given us bright children and a free land,” and they shouldn’t need to worry about bombs dropping at night and bullets whizzing through their windows.

“Give them the even playing field and caring coaches that make all of us happy,” he said. “…Our best days are ahead of us.”

WHERE WE GO FROM HERE

In addition to discussions about the country’s race relations, the grand jury’s decision in Missouri has also sparked protests all around the nation.

Janessa Rosick, public information coordinator for the RPD, said they did not experience any activity in town in response to the Ferguson decision that involved a police response and they were not called in to the response in downtown Seattle.

While this was the case, Fein said RPD holds annual training that prepares a team of officers in crowd management. She said if called upon, those officers would be ready to respond to such an event.

While some of the protests in response to the Ferguson decision have resulted in violence and rioting, Richards said she has been “incredibly impressed” with the protests. She said those who caused the violence and destroyed property were opportunists.

“They show up at the times they think they can get away with it,” she said.

James Whitfield, president of Leadership Eastside (LE), an organization that provides a leadership enrichment program for members of the greater Eastside community, recently issued a statement regarding Ferguson in the organization’s latest newsletter.

“The challenge that I see is whether enough leaders, with enough varied perspectives, will embrace the conflict at hand and step into opportunities to build a better picture of where our communities stand today,” he wrote. “And work together to plot a greater story about our shared future.”

The full statement can be found on LE’s Facebook page.

Whitfield acknowledged that conflict is difficult, but it allows people to work toward a shared purpose rather than at cross purposes.

“It builds community even as it rearranges the status quo,” he wrote.