School leaders and police in Santa Rosa on Tuesday will host a commmunity gathering in the wake of a student's fatal stabbing at Montgomery High School last week.
Students and families have been outspoken with their outrage and their calls for action after a 15-year-old freshman student stabbed 16-year-old Jayden Pienta. But if two community meetings held Monday are any indication, many of them don’t feel heard.
Students returned to Montgomery High on Monday, only to walk out a few hours later, chanting and demanding better security.
Many wore Pienta’s name or initials.
One of the meetings was held in person, hosted by the Community Equity Foundation. Much of the talk at that meeting was about a lack of communication between schools and the community.
In a virtual meeting held by Sonoma County School District officials, Sonoma Valley school leaders and Sonoma police, the talk was about increased security measures like locking classroom doors.
The day Pienta died, he and a classmate entered another classroom to confront the freshman who allegedly stabbed him. The Sonoma police chief said something similar happened in February at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, where students interrupted a class to assault another student.
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That’s fueling the conversation about bringing school resource officers back to campus.
Tuesday's gathering, dubbed a "listening session," starts at 4:30 p.m. at Friedman Event Center, 4676 Mayette Avenue in Santa Rosa.
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Many community members plan to attend Wednesday's school board meeting, and the district scheduled a study session for March 25 to discuss school resource officers.
The 15-year-old accused in the deadly stabbing at Montgomery High was in juvenile court Monday to face charges of involuntary manslaughter and bringing a knife to school.
