Return of student resource officers officially ‘back on the table’ for Santa Rosa schools

The return of student resource officers are now officially back on the table for the Santa Rosa City Schools District.

The Santa Rosa City Schools District adopted a strategic plan Wednesday as a direct response to the March 1 on-campus fatal stabbing of Montgomery High School student Jayden Pienta, which spurred countywide protests and calls for improved safety.

At Wednesday’s regular board meeting, trustees voted 7-0 to adopt the plan, which includes exploring the return of the student resource officer program, increasing safety training, along with hiring more counselors, campus supervisors and restorative specialists.

The plan was created by the Safety Advisory Round Table, a group of 30 community representatives comprised of parents, district officials, students and teachers.

Santa Rosa City Schools Superintendent Anna Trunnell formed the round table after Pienta’s death to gather feedback and recommendations on four pillars: safety and security, mental health and counseling, communication and transparency and facilities.

The estimated cost of the actions recommended in the plan could be at least $6.5 million.

One of the plan’s chief directives is to explore the return of school resource officers, a move that comes amid debates over officers’ effectiveness and ethicality, and a push from the Santa Rosa Police Department for its return.

In June 2020, the Santa Rosa City Schools board suspended its relationship with the police department after a 25-year partnership that supplied officers, funded by the city’s Measure O tax.

Some community members have argued that school resources are crucial to faster response times to critical incidents that may occur on campus and understanding the school’s culture and students.

Santa Rosa Police Chief John Cregan has touted the success of the student resource officer assigned to Montgomery’s campus for the remainder of the 2022-23 school year, requested by Interim Principal Laurie Fong after the fatal stabbing.

“I'm confident that we can work together to bring the SRO program with modifications that work for our students and our parents or teachers and the whole community here in Santa Rosa,” Cregan said. “And to me, it's all about partnerships and compromise for the greater good of our children.”

“It is deeply personal for me, having children here in our school district and hearing so many strong concerns from our students, from our parents, from teachers, about some of the safety concerns on our school campuses,” he added.

Others have argued that school resource officers contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline, are more likely to target minority students and make students of color feel uncomfortable in their educational environment.

A 2017 Education Week Resource Center analysis found that in 43 states and the District of Columbia, Black students were arrested at school at disproportionately high levels — and in 10 states, Black students were arrested 20% more than their percentage of enrollment.

Some studies have showed the presence of student resource officers contribute to higher arrest rates and disparities.

Cregan acknowledged some of the possible issues with bringing back the SRO program. It “is going to be a balancing act for us about ensuring that there's consequences for illegal behavior, but also really trying to work towards this restorative justice model and what we can do to divert kids from the juvenile justice system.”

Currently, there is no funding source established for this program through the district, Trunnell said. And since the student resource officers positions were eliminated in the Santa Rosa police force, any returning positions are not yet in the department’s budget, Cregan said.

The board has created a subcommittee in partnership with the city to focus on relationship building and safety and security efforts to potentially include rebuilding the SRO program in partnership with the city and negotiating a new plan for funding.

District trustees Alegría De La Cruz, Jeremy De La Torre and Omar Medina will be on that subcommittee, as well as city representatives, who have not yet been chosen. They are currently in the process of working with the city to schedule meetings, Trunnell said.

Medina had launched a petition in 2020 to end the resource officer program and led the charge to remove them from campus.

“I am for completely eliminating this program,” Medina said in June 2020.

Also in the strategic plan, the Safety Advisory Board recommended creating safety training to staff including labor partner and outside agencies, which includes confront intervention and de-escalation workshops, data training, mental health, first aid, and trauma-informed training, as well as restorative practices training.

“In short, every adult who is supporting students would have these levels of training,” said a representative of their group said to trustees in a June 14 presentation.

They also asked for annual evaluations of disaster and evacuation plans, including better communication systems to inform students during drills and emergencies.

Parent education programs or “Wellness Workshops” were part of the plan, too, to engage guardians in academic opportunities parenting for success pathways after high school to prevent violence.

De La Torre, the newest elected school board trustee, was part of the Safety Advisory Round Table as a parent representative before he was elected.

“It was a great group of people with great perspectives they brought to the table,” he said. “I think a strategic plan they came up with and presented to the board of trustees gives us some good guidance on how to move forward.”

He said, as a parent of kids who both have and have not had student resource officers on campus, “A lot of the challenges we had on campus were there with or without SROs. I think personally SROs could be a piece of the puzzle, but they're not the overall final solution.”

“I do think further discussions on how their presence on campus and how that's gonna be funded is exactly what needs to happen,” he said. “It’s a lot of unknowns.”

Aside from exploring student resource officers, De La Torre highlighted the board’s strategic plan to build more relationships and mentorships so that kids can have a positive role model to look up to.

To view the full Safety Advisory Round Table strategic plan, visit tinyurl.com/yc2rt7za.

You can reach Staff Writer Alana Minkler at 707-526-8531 or alana.minkler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @alana_minkler.