Principal: 2 students at Santa Rosa’s Montgomery High found Friday with knives, 9 days after fatal campus stabbing

Two students at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa were removed from classes on Friday after the discovery of knives in their possession, Principal Adam Paulson said in an email late Friday afternoon to parents.

The latest “incident,” as Paulson described it in his email, came a week and a half after a 16-year-old Montgomery High student was fatally stabbed March 1 in a classroom at the Hahman Drive school, marking the worst case of campus violence in Sonoma County in a generation or more.

Montgomery High administrators made Friday’s discovery after learning of a social media post involving weapons tied to a student who was on campus, Paulson said in the 4:37 p.m. email to parents.

Administrators removed that student from their 4th period class, he said.

As that process was underway, the student handed off an object to another student, Paulson wrote. Both students were then brought to the school’s office.

While there, school staff found both students had knives on them, Pauslon said. He did not say how many or give any additional description of the weapons.

He did not offer any explanation, if given by the students, on why they were carrying the knives.

The parents of each student were summoned and the students were picked up and taken home, Paulson said.

“Consequences for each student were applied per school and board policy,” he said. He did not elaborate and did not respond to requests for comment starting Friday evening around 5 p.m.

The Santa Rosa Police Department was not informed of the incident until it received notice from a parent of a Montgomery High student who relayed Paulson’s email to Chief John Cregan, according to Sgt. Chris Mahurin, a department spokesperson.

Mahurin said the department doesn't know who the students are and can't take any action unless the school files a report with 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.

Neither Santa Rosa City Schools Superintendent Anna Trunnell nor the district's public information officer, Vanessa Wedderburn, responded to multiple email and voice messages before and after 5 p.m. seeking comment.

“Students that bring weapons to campus will be held accountable for their actions,” Paulson wrote in his email to parents. “Please know that we will continue to stay vigilant in maintaining the safety of our students and staff. We ask that if you see something, say something right away.”

His note included a link to the district’s school safety reporting app, STOPit.

The suspect in the fatal March 1 attack, a 15-year-old freshman, appeared Friday for the second time in Sonoma County Juvenile Court, where he was ordered to remain in county custody by a judge who said he posed a danger if released.

Santa Rosa City Schools officials, meanwhile, have faced an outpouring of anger, frustration and fear from students, parents and teachers over reports of campus violence.

It came in a series of large student-led walkouts starting last week and continued this week in emotional testimony at a pair of packed district meetings and campus demonstrations and street marches that amounted to one of the largest collective youth protest in Sonoma County in a decade.

The Press Democrat reported last week the Santa Rosa Police Department received 97 calls for a response from Montgomery High in the past 12 months.

The vast majority of those calls were for nonviolent issues — fireworks on campus, suspicious vehicles and burglary, for example. In the past year, seven of the reports were for battery, assault or some kind of fight on campus, according to Mahurin, the department spokesperson.

A Montgomery High School teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity because school district officials have prohibited “unauthorized” staff from speaking to the news media, said teachers at the school are feeling “hopeless.”

“This morning we get an email from Superintendent Trunnell that says 'Please know that we would not ignore a threat to safety. Any threats to student and staff safety are treated very seriously.' And as a teacher at one of the SRCS schools I was offended, because we have been asking for help and nothing has happened. Then after the death last week it seemed like there'd be some kind of wake-up call, but instead it feels like there's lots of this lip service, lies about them not knowing this was a problem, and no concrete solutions," the teacher said in an email.

She added: "Now we get this message that there were (more) knives on campus ... and as we are leaving we see district administrators on campus once again, but what are they actually doing? Aside from meeting with lawyers to protect themselves, what are they doing? How are they addressing the safety of the children who have spent a week and a half begging to be protected?”

Staff Writer Paulina Pineda contributed to this story.

You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 707-387-2960 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jeremyhay