Classroom assault at Casa Grande High School leads to uproar, review of safety protocols

Parents and faculty of Casa Grande High School are indignant over the school’s response to a Feb. 17 incident in which two assailants in ski masks barged into a classroom and attacked a student during class before being chased off by other students.

The morning assault — which prompted an email to parents and students from Principal Dan Ostermann later that day – turned out to be part of an ongoing feud between students and did not result in serious injuries to the victim.

But for parents, who learned about the incident in a 3 p.m. email sent that same day, it wasn’t clear who the attackers were, whether they remained on the campus, or why no lockdown or earlier announcement was made.

Community members have since taken to social media to decry what they characterized as a chronic lack of proper communication or adherence to established school safety protocols.

“In two meetings since (the assault), Casa administration shifted blame to teachers for not issuing bathroom passes correctly, not taking attendance correctly, and not being able to tell when a student is lying about having a phone with them or not,” a group of parents, teachers and other community members stated in a message posted to Facebook last Friday.

“Teachers begged for answers. They said they were filled with rage, disappointment, anger, fear,” the message read.

In a separate “Call to Action,” also posted by parents on their Facebook pages, the same group of community members indicated this was an ongoing problem at Casa Grande, stating that “we have already been through this – when the school received bomb threats earlier this year, school administration did not notify them! Also, for years, (teachers) have been explicitly forbidden, in writing, from ever calling 911 — even in a life and death emergency … and that policy only changed this year via external pressure.”

According to Jennifer Inden, a Casa Grande parent, both messages were developed by “Several folks … concerned community members, some parents, some school faculty, both at Casa and at other schools, who really collaborated on that.”

Inden was among those demanding change at the school, accusing its administrators of failing to follow the district’s own guidelines in the case of dangerous events.

“They have a protocol in place,” she said. “And they did not follow their protocol.”

Police were called to the campus immediately after the incident and arrived quickly, said Petaluma police Deputy Chief Brian Miller.

Miller said the assailants wore ski masks concealing their faces, and entered the classroom the morning of Feb. 17 with a specific target in mind.

Although they were not apprehended immediately, he added, the assailants were determined to be students rather than outsiders, and authorities “had both the juvenile offenders in custody (the following) Tuesday afternoon.”

Both suspects were taken to Juvenile Hall for processing, police said.

Because the incident was a campus fight involving minors, and no one was hurt, police did not believe a general alert was warranted, Miller said. He added that whether the campus should have been locked down in the wake of this incident was a decision best made by school and district administrators.

Still, Miller acknowledged that “the masks contribute to the anxiety” around the assault.

He noted that while it was not expressly gang-related, the incident did involve an ongoing conflict between students, and that the perpetrators appeared to be at-risk teenagers who were “emulating gang activity.”

When it comes to students leaving class to put on ski masks and attack a student in another class, “That’s pretty brazen,” Miller said. “And I think there were a couple of fights earlier in the week” leading up to the assault.

Principal Ostermann supported that narrative in the two emails he sent to Casa Grande parents and students — the first on Feb. 17, the second a follow-up on Feb. 20.

“We believe this incident is directly related to a fight that took place between the students on (Feb.16) after school,” he wrote in the Feb. 20 email.

“We take this violation of our campus safety very seriously,” he continued, “and appropriate school consequences will take place for the students involved. Repairing the harm done to our community and eliminating this type of unacceptable behavior is a top priority.”

Ostermann did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Argus-Courier.

Matthew Harris, Petaluma City Schools superintendent, noted that while it wouldn’t be obvious to non-staff, teachers and administrators working at the school guessed right away that the assault on the student was conducted by the same fellow students involved in the fight the day before.

Based on that context, “The site administration knew,” he said. Although it took a few days to get the perpetrators to admit to it, “We had a very good sense of who it was from the very beginning.”

Harris also addressed the one-time rule at Casa Grande disallowing teachers from calling 911, explaining that it was a holdover from when cellphones didn’t provide information on where a call was coming from – meaning 911 dispatchers had trouble responding to calls made from cellphones.

That’s no longer an issue, and the policy was updated in October.

“School staff should feel empowered to call 911 if the situation warrants it,” Harris said.

Still, when it comes to communication around the incident, Ostermann’s two emails were not nearly enough, said Inden and other parents.

Asked on Monday what she would have liked the school to have done differently in response to the Feb. 17 incident, Inden said, “Exactly what had happened today.”

On Monday, the school went on a brief lockdown after a homeless man entered the campus and tried to access one of the doors. Police arrived and escorted him off the school campus, and the lockdown was lifted.

Harris had a similar response to the same question.

“I think if we were to replay the (Feb. 17) event, it would have happened just like what happened today on campus. We would have put the school on lockdown,” he said.

On Tuesday, Harris sent out a district-wide message further detailing the incident and addressing safety concerns at Casa Grande.

“Following a review of the incident, we have concluded that it is justified to initiate a lockdown in the future if something like this were to happen again on one of our campuses, because we want to be abundantly cautious when it comes to the safety of our students and staff,” he wrote.

Miller, the deputy police chief, noted that the sheer frequency and variety of threats faced by schools makes it hard to balance school safety with a desire to not panic students, parents and teachers.

“It’s difficult being a school administrator these days,” he said.

Don Frances is editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier. Reach him at don.frances@arguscourier.com.