Students, teachers, parents demand end to school violence at Santa Rosa City Schools board meeting

Every seat in the Santa Rosa City Council chambers was filled Wednesday for the Santa Rosa City Schools board meeting.

Scores of students, teachers and parents showed up seeking direct change. It had been a week since the fatal stabbing of Jayden Pienta, a 16-year-old student at Montgomery High School — a week full of fear, grief, anger and protests.

Outside council chambers, cheers from even more protesting students, parents and teachers penetrated the tall glass windows.

After thousands of students across Sonoma County walked out of class Wednesday, calling for improved campus safety, the Santa Rosa City School Board’s regular bimonthly meeting seemed like an appropriate and formal place to directly demand action, attendees said.

School board president Stephanie Manieri started off by thanking the crowd for coming and promising to listen. But she added that the board could not legally respond to comments on non-agenda items. Later on in the meeting, however, each board member made statements promising action.

One-by-one, students, parents and teachers stepped up to speak to board members during public comment. Each was given one minute to speak their mind, and the cascade of emotions went on for two hours and 40 minutes.

Teachers shared their experiences dealing with children who they say desperately need more mental health supports after fires and pandemic lockdowns.

Ashley Bell, a Santa Rosa High School teacher, pleaded for help in decreasing school violence. She described a situation when she was seven months pregnant and one student told another student that he wanted to push her down the stairs. She said this year alone, three staff members have been assaulted.

"I know students have knives on campus, I just pray they don’t have guns,“ she said.

Jim Rudesill, a Montgomery High teacher for 16 years, said he’s worked with 20 different administrators, adding that the ones with the least experience typically deal with discipline and schools safety.

“That is backward,” he said, as students in the crowd stood up and clapped. “Please redesign the structure.”

Simone Harris, a teacher at Montgomery said metal detectors and officers on campus were not the answer.

She suggested students would be safer with more mental health support, adult supervision and better facilities that “affirm their worth,” referencing the dilapidated facilities at the high school.

Many parents who attended in-person and over Zoom advocated for the return of student resource officers, which were removed in the wake of the George Floyd murder by police in Minneapolis. However, many students spoke out against them.

Students also took their one-minute allotments to demand specific safety needs and wants.

Emerson Parker, 18, a Maria Carillo High senior, called for non-police supervisors, a more proactive approach to student conflicts and more mental health specialists, as he said his school’s therapist is completely booked out.

Joey Browser, a senior at Montgomery, asked the board to seek more state funding so they can actually implement the changes the public is demanding.

“You guys need to stand up to those above you to encourage more funding to go to our school district,” he said.

Andre Achacon, a 17-year-old senior at Santa Rosa High, said Wednesday’s school walkouts were cries for help from the district.

“The fear we feel is why many students are here today and our message is clear: value life not violence,” Achacon said. “We are asking for a space to learn in a secure and safe environment.”

Board member Omar Medina moved to extend the public comment period in order to hear every person who signed up to speak.

At the end, each board member made statements during their turn for reports, thanking the students for raising their voices, promising to use input to create change and assuring their commitment to making schools safer.

“We are honoring the tragic loss of life and others which will be forever changed with action,” Superintendent Anna Trunnell said. “The range of emotions is tremendous. Yet the one thing that all voices express is care.”

She said due to federal and state privacy laws, information regarding specific student’s educational records will not be released.

Trustee Ever Flores, a former school counselor at Healdsburg High School said, “Anything I say will likely fall short to capture the magnitude of our grief. And so I’m just taking a few moments to let you know that we know we can do better, we must do better.”

Trustee Laura Fong, who was a teacher for 23 years and a school administrator for 19, said, “I’ve dedicated my entire adult life to education,” and hearing from the students who came in today has made her “heartsick.”

“You’re telling us what you need and we are listening,” Fong said. ”We can’t do it with the funding that we have,” she said. In California, the nation’s fourth largest economy, it is “immoral” we spend as little as we do on education when we are ranked 31st in the nation for per-student spending.

“Because really, let's get real,” she said. “We can't afford all these things without a different budget ― we just cannot.”

Manieri, the board’s president, said she and Trunnell will be meeting with congressman Mike Thompson on Friday to discuss federal funding.

“It really is our responsibility to work with our legislators, our senators, our representatives to make sure that we're getting the funding that we need in our system to create the change that we all want,” she said.

After all board members had made statements, they took a break before moving onto regular agenda items, some wiping away tears after the emotion-packed 100-plus public comments and statements.

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