As a student, how safe do you feel in San Francisco?
Recently at Mission High, a student was robbed by another student. At neighboring Everett Middle School, an adult working for the after school program was arrested for the sexual assault of a minor. In addition to these recent stories, there are many reasons students may feel unsafe.
Here are some other stories collected from the Mission community.
Mariana Aguilar and her friends, a group of five girls, watched the Mission girls soccer team play Lowell. After leaving school, they were followed by a guy on a scooter who was harassing them. The stranger talked to them and made them feel uncomfortable. After Mariana and her friends got on the 49 bus, the man stopped in front of the bus on his scooter, deliberately stopping it from moving. Eventually the bus drove away, but the man on the scooter kept following for a couple of blocks.
“That experience made me feel uncomfortable and weird even though there were five of us, because men can be weird sometimes,” commented Brianna Rodriguez.
Rowan Keese, a junior, was staying alone at the house with his parents out of town. When he heard something banging down in the garage, Rowan called his parents and told them he heard someone in the house. They said to call the police and he did. He was scared and said, “I didn’t have any weapons so I didn’t want to go downstairs.” When he finally did check downstairs, his dad’s bike was stolen from the garage.
The crime rate is 67 per every one thousand residents. According to the website Neighborhood Scout, San Francisco has one of the highest crime rates in America.
An 11th grader who wanted to remain anonymous gave this story. Our source told us about a time when he was a fourth grader living in the Fillmore. He saw a dead body after a shooting outside of McDonald’s. He mentioned seeing paramedics covering the body, people crying and other after-effects of the shooting. He thought San Francisco was kind of on the middle ground of safe and unsafe, but this incident made him realize that he had to be aware of his surroundings and that San Francisco can still be a dangerous city.
A quick Google search on safety in SF yields a real estate website, the Property Club, which states that just living in San Francisco, your chances of becoming a victim of property crime are 1 in 17, and if you own a vehicle, you have to be even more careful with almost 818 vehicle related crimes for every 100,000 people.
However, Mayor London Breed says crime in 2023 is the lowest it has been in the last 10 years.
The city can be an unsafe place just like anywhere else, so it’s a good idea to be aware of your surroundings and to know where you’re going. You should always mind your own business and don’t be nosy.
Some advice given by Chandra Sivakumaran, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) from the Wellness Center at Mission High, is to be safe, “You should be home by 9pm. You shouldn’t smoke at Dolores at 1am. You shouldn’t do drugs . . . and you should go out with friends and not alone.”
At Mission, efforts are being made to ensure students are safe. Mr. Juan Garcia, Dean of Students, said outcomes students can expect from reporting issues are restorative circles, interventions, and mediations. “When students come forward with problems, we take action!”
