A Seattle police response unfolded Friday evening at Interagency Academy in the 3500 block of South Ferdinand Street after officers learned a student had brought a gun onto the campus. Officers were arriving on scene, and the weapon had been secured.
The department shared the update in real time, saying officers were investigating a call for a student who brought a gun to the school and that the weapon had been secured, according to the Seattle Police Department
. Details beyond the initial response, including how the gun was discovered and whether an arrest followed, were not included in the department's post.
A Campus With a History of Weapons Incidents
The Ferdinand Street building has faced this kind of scare before. In January 2015, a late-teens student was arrested after carrying a firearm through a hallway at the same site, triggering a campus lockdown, per The Seattle Times. The site, now known as the Interagency Columbia campus, has also been at the center of recent district consolidation, with Seattle Public Schools leadership proposing in July 2025 to relocate students from the Old Roxhill Interagency Southwest campus there for the 2025-26 school year, as reported by West Seattle Blog.
Interagency Academy is a Seattle school.
School Safety and Firearms
School firearm incidents can raise questions about criminal law and student discipline. Separately, under RCW 28A.600.420 and Seattle Public Schools Board Policy 4210, any student determined to have possessed a firearm on school grounds faces a mandatory minimum one-year expulsion, subject to case-by-case modification by the district superintendent. District policy also requires all facilities to post “Gun-Free Zone” signage and mandates that school authorities report firearms violations annually to the Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Part of a Larger Pattern of Concern in Seattle Schools
Friday's incident lands amid a broader, tense conversation about weapons and safety in Seattle Public Schools. The district has operated under heightened scrutiny since the fatal November 2022 shooting at Ingraham High School and the June 2024 fatal shooting of 17-year-old student Amarr Murphy-Paine outside Garfield High School, according to KNKX Public Radio. The Murphy-Paine family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the district in May 2025 alleging inadequate campus security.
Campus policing has been part of broader school-safety discussions in Seattle. The district and city have also pursued other safety measures: in August 2024, Mayor Bruce Harrell and Superintendent Brent Jones announced a proposed $14.55 million safety investment, combining $12.25 million in city funds with $2.3 million from the district, that was sent to the Seattle City Council for approval to expand campus security, mental health support, and violence interruption across 11 middle and high schools with elevated safety risks, according to Seattle's Child.
The stakes behind that investment are stark. King County recorded more than 60 children and teenagers under 18 as victims of gun violence in 2024, a figure that has doubled countywide over five years, per the same KNKX report. For a school built specifically to catch students who need extra support, Friday's response is a reminder of how close that regional trend can land to any single classroom.
