SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Despite the presence of Santa Rosa Police Department officers at Montgomery High School when classes resumed Monday morning, students walked out in protest of the recent violence.
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This comes amid outcries from students and parents over ongoing safety concerns after a student was stabbed and killed last Wednesday.
Hundreds of students crowded together on the steps of the school, some carrying signs reading, "Stop the violence."
According to one 10th grader, there are fights at the school there every day, despite being told that their school is relatively safe. Students are saying that things need to change.
While officers were present at pick up and will be at drop off, this is a controversial issue for many.
"The Chief has actually hand-picked three officers that are going to be attending Montgomery High School during pick up and drop off this morning and this afternoon," said Santa Rosa Police Department Sgt. Christopher Mahurin.
"Just to kind of reassure students that there is a safety presence on campus," he said.
This decision was made after the in-classroom stabbing death of the 16-year-old at the hands of a fellow student last week.
The 15-year-old suspect was charged with voluntary manslaughter Monday morning in Sonoma County Court.
Santa Rosa Police Chief John Cregan has said that he favors the return of school resource officers to campuses, which the city's school board ended three years ago.
"We do have violence in Santa Rosa," he said. "That's an obvious fact – we are a large enough city where that is going to occur."
"But these acts of violence that occurred last week at Montgomery are rare," said Cregan. "Our schools are safe, our city is safe."
"But there is more that we can do to make sure that students and teachers are having the safest environment to continue that educational process," he said. "We're going to continue to work with our community to figure out what they deem is most important for the safety of their students in class."
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