Among the highlights from Tuesday’s Snohomish County COVID-19 media briefing:

• County Executive Dave Somers speaks out on citizen vigilantes
• Snohomish County is moving its local COVID-19 data to the state health website.
• A Mountlake Terrace High School senior describes his journey through the year that changed everything.

Vigilante justice

“Vigilante justice is not welcome in Snohomish County.” Those words came from County Executive Dave Somers during the coronavirus briefing.

Somers referred to the May 31 incident in which citizen vigilantes, some carrying semi-automatic weapons, gathered in the city of Snohomish, saying they were there to help protect against a rumored threat of leftist groups looting during protests related to the death of George Floyd. It was just a rumor; nothing happened.

City of Snohomish Police Chief Keith Rogers has been demoted and reassigned after he told the Snohomish City Council that the event had a “festive air.” He’s been replaced by Snohomish County Sheriff’s Captain Robert Palmer.

Somers said the group was mostly young men, drinking on the sidewalks and riding in cars “burning rubber” in the streets. He also noted “the presence of white nationalists” at the event.

“We do not need citizen vigilante justice to spring up,” added the county executive. “We were very fortunate things did not escalate.”

Changes in COVID-19 reporting 

Beginning Friday, Snohomish County will no longer report data on new coronavirus cases, deaths and hospitalizations on the county health website. Instead, you will be able to find it on the Washington State Department of Health Data Dashboard link.

Chief Health Officer Dr. Chris Spitters says his staff now “needs to focus on the measures of our success (combatting the virus) and being ready for Phase 3, which could come in less than three weeks if the outbreak continues to decline. Health district spokesperson Heather Thomas acknowledges that the state website numbers will not include what she called the “granular data” on the county’s city-by-city coronavirus cases, adding that “for now, the focus for our epidemiologists will be on case investigations and state-required activities.”

Based on a check of the state’s Data Dashboard, residents also no longer will be able to track the extensive graphics the county health department has posted.

Staying connected helped high school seniors cope

For local high school seniors, this has been the year that their world turned inside out; their school life in free fall.

“Making the most of our senior year took on a new meaning this year, high school senior Jonathan Kwong told reporters during the briefing.

Kwong’s appearance marked the first time a student has been part of the weekly county briefings. He is student advisor to the Edmonds School Board, and a senior at Mountlake Terrace High School.

Kwong says the “hardest part of the year” came several weeks after the school closed, as staff and teachers hustled to figure out what would come next. Field trips, dances, assemblies, proms and graduation were in upheaval. As yearbook editor, Kwong says the school shutdown “threw us totally off course” and students scrambled to insert the chronicle of the outbreak into the yearbook.

“We’ve been able to get through this together,”says Kwong, “because we’ve been able to get together and often” — virtually through Zoom, Facebook and check-ins with “the network we created around each other.”

Graduation, he says, “was really memorable, no matter what.” Signs, balloons and cheering staff greeted seniors during their drive-up graduation for an “emotional sendoff.” They drove up to a stage, got out, got their diplomas and photos, all in masks while social distancing.

In the seniors’ farewell “goodie bags” were a graduation cookie, candy, coffee cup — and a face mask.

Just days before the Mountlake campus closed in March, Kwong found enough time to finish his senior STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) project; a study to determine how plant hormones could remove contamination from floodwaters. He won first place at the state science fair.

Now Jonathan Kwong is celebrating another milestone. Nine days after graduating, he starts college at the University of Washington, enrolled in the honors program in biochemistry.  A year turned upside down that he and all local grads will always remember.

— By Bob Throndsen