Mount Baker Preschool Raises Safety Alarm
- A Mount Baker preschool reports staff feel unsafe due to nearby homeless encampments, disrupting outdoor playtime. - The complaint says outdoor time has been reduced and staff increased supervision during drop-off and pick-up. - Parents and staff are urging city outreach and services to relocate encampments away from the school (patch.com).
A preschool next to Seattle’s Mount Baker Transit Center says nearby encampments and recent violence are making staff and families feel unsafe. (komonews.com) Gloria Hodge, director of Hoa Mai Vietnamese Bilingual Preschool, told KOMO News that fears spiked after a stabbing near the transit station and after a man was found bleeding there, steps from the school. She said the area had improved after earlier city action, but unauthorized encampments have returned. (komonews.com) The school’s concern centers on a place built around outdoor routines. Mount Baker Preschool, a separate Waldorf cooperative in Seattle’s Leschi neighborhood, says its daily schedule starts with outdoor play at 9 a.m. and neighborhood walks before children return inside around 10:30 a.m. (mountbakerpreschool.org) Seattle says it inspects unauthorized encampments, ranks sites by hazard level, and can carry out 72-hour removals under its Multi-Department Administrative Rule. The city says outreach and offers of shelter and storage are provided at all 72-hour removals. (seattle.gov) The Mount Baker dispute sits beside a sanctioned site as well. Tent City 3 is operating at 2720 S. Hanford St. through May 26, 2026, according to SHARE/WHEEL, and KOMO reported this week that no next location had been announced. (sharewheel.org, komonews.com) Hodge told KOMO that sanctioned encampments can draw additional unsanctioned camps nearby, while Tent City 3 itself provides bathrooms, a kitchen, and on-site staff. That tension has shaped neighborhood arguments over whether more shelter, more enforcement, or both are needed around the transit hub. (komonews.com, sharewheel.org) Mayor Katie Wilson has made faster shelter expansion part of her first months in office. She has said Seattle aims to open 500 new shelter units before mid-June and 1,000 by the end of 2026, though local coverage has reported questions about whether that timeline is achievable. (mynorthwest.com, publicola.com) For the preschool, the immediate issue is simpler than the citywide policy fight. Hodge told KOMO she wants the city to manage unauthorized encampments near the school more consistently so children can get through the day without staff treating arrival, pickup, and playtime as security risks. (komonews.com)
