Police arrest Montgomery High School students accused of having knives

Two Montgomery High School students accused of having knives on Friday were arrested one day after school officials sent them home to their parents, police said Monday.

The students, ages 15 and 17, are each suspected of felony possession of a weapon on a school campus, according to the Santa Rosa Police Department.

Police are continuing to investigate why the knives were brought to school, but neither discovery is believed to be linked to the March 1 stabbing at Montgomery, which resulted in the death of a 16-year-old junior, the injury of another, and the arrest of a 15-year-old freshman who is accused of voluntary manslaughter.

“There’s nothing I know of or have been told about whether these are related to each other,” Santa Rosa police Sgt. Chris Mahurin said Monday.

In Friday’s incident, school officials, learned via social media that a 15-year-old had a weapon on campus.

As the teen was being removed from class, officials said he was seen passing a 4-inch folding knife to the 17-year-old suspect. Authorities added that the knife was confiscated.

Officials searched the second suspect’s backpack and found a 7 ½-inch knife.

Friday afternoon, at 4:37 p.m., then-Montgomery High School Principal Adam Paulson emailed parents about the discoveries of the knives and said both students had been disciplined and sent home with their parents.

Minutes after receiving that letter, a parent contacted Santa Rosa police, Mahurin said. It wasn’t until 8:30 p.m. Friday that a school official contacted police.

School administrators are required to notify law enforcement if they learn of weapons on school grounds, including knives that have blades longer than 2-½ inches, or are folding with blades that lock in place, according to the California Education Code.

Historically, Mahurin said, police have been contacted “immediately” after weapons were discovered on area campuses.

Police, though, are not investigating the delayed notification, Mahurin added.

Santa Rosa City Schools officials have not commented on the delayed notification and it wasn’t clear if it played a role in Paulson and Assistant Principal Tyler Ahlborn being placed on leave over the weekend.

Santa Rosa City Schools Board Trustee Laurie Fong resigned from her position and will take over as interim principal at Montgomery, the school district announced over the weekend. Fong served as principal at Montgomery from 2006 to 2016.

The transition follows growing calls for safety improvements across the school district in the wake of the March 1 fatal stabbing. Students organized walkouts and converged on last week’s school board meeting to express their concerns.

Over the weekend, Chief John Cregan and Santa Rosa City Schools Superintendent Anna Trunnell agreed to have a police officer at Montgomery High School Monday and Tuesday.

Mahurin said the effort is a test run that provides additional adult supervision on campus.

The officer on campus is Luigi Valencia, who has been with the police department more than two years.

The Santa Rosa native is bilingual and a licensed marriage and family therapist with experience working with the Sonoma County Mobile Mental Health Response team.

Additional patrol officers will perform security checks at high school campuses between other calls for service, officials said, adding that they will drive through parking lots, walk the campuses and check in with school administrators.

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been revised to correct a description of the period of leave related to Montgomery Assistant Vice Principal Tyler Ahlborn. The duration of his leave is yet to be determined, according to district officials.