Santa Rosa Councilwoman Natalie Rogers’ call for action after Texas shooting is personal

Santa Rosa Councilwoman Natalie Rogers was preparing to fly home from Virginia on Tuesday when her husband mentioned in passing there had been a shooting at a Texas elementary school.

As she settled later into her seat on the plane, additional details emerged about the horrific shooting. Her husband urged her to put her phone down.

The couple had just seen their son walk across the stage at his high school graduation — a life passage that would never come for the 19 slain fourth grade students at Robb Elementary in the south Texas city of Uvalde.

Sadness washed over Rogers.

“I just bawled,” she said.

Her blended family includes eight children ranging in age from 11 to 22. Her youngest, son Jalen Rose, accompanied her Wednesday at a Sonoma County employee appreciation event, where she shared in an interview the hopelessness and anger that have gripped her in the wake of the latest U.S. mass shooting.

Rogers has endured the toll of gun violence firsthand. Her stepsister died by suicide when Rogers was 15.

She is a Black woman — the first to serve on the Santa Rosa City Council — and mother of children who, by the color of their skin alone, are more likely to be hurt or die as a result of gunfire or police violence in this country than their white peers.

And schools are no certain refuge.

“How am I supposed to send my children off to college if I can’t even send them off to elementary school or high school or anywhere else and keep them safe?” she said, her voice quivering.

In the absence of clearer government action to rein in gun violence and enact stronger firearm controls, which she supports, she can’t help but wonder when her community will be next, she said.

“When is enough, enough? I don’t want it to be my children, I don’t want it to be one of my friends’ children, and it didn’t have to be any of those mothers’ children.”

She called those in positions of power hypocritical for seeking to limit women’s reproductive rights while failing to take bigger steps to combat gun violence or bolster mental health resources.

And she urged residents to hit the ballot box and hold elected officials accountable.

“If they cannot be accountable, then we need to find new leaders,” she said. “Now is the perfect time to do that. People need to get out and vote for the things they believe in, because voting does make a difference.”

Rogers is a marriage and family therapist, and she recommends having frank conversations about school shootings, violence and other tough topics with children, regardless of their age. In those cases, children do best when they have a space where they’re comfortable expressing themselves, she said.

In the aftermath of the Texas shooting, Rogers said she and her husband spoke to their children about the incident. It was a continuation of their talks about being Black in the U.S. or how to interact with police as a person of color, a conversation she said they have all too often.

“Some people may think it’s inappropriate, some of the stuff we talk about, but if we don’t teach our children, the world will,” she said.

For Rogers, her faith helps her move forward after tragedy. Rather than pray for a different outcome, she’s learned in the years since her sister’s death to ask for strength.

“I ask God to please give me the strength to endure what is in his will and not just change what his will is … and that’s what helps me now to keep going,” she said. “That doesn’t mean I’m not sad, that doesn’t mean I don’t cry, but it helps me to get up every day to keep trying to change policy and fighting and moving forward.”

As Rogers and her son readied to pass out T-shirts Wednesday and collect raffle tickets at the county event, she shared her grief for the loved ones of the 21 people killed, including two teachers.

“My heart hurts for their families, my heart hurts for their community and my heart hurts for our community as a whole, because it leaves a big hole every time something like this happens,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Paulina Pineda at 707-521-5268 or paulina.pineda@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @paulinapineda22.