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Fatal stabbing of Montgomery High student reveals underlying issues

Mar 15, 2023

Fatal stabbing of Montgomery High student reveals underlying issues

Nearly two weeks after tragedy struck Montgomery High School, thousands of students and community members have raised concerns about safety at Santa Rosa’s public schools, but solutions remain elusive.

The much-needed discussion was sadly triggered by the March 1 death of a 16-year-old boy who, along with another student, was stabbed by a 15-year-old student during an on-campus fight. Citing confidentiality laws, district administrators have only shared limited details about the students’ relationship leading up to the final confrontation.

The Sonoma County District Attorney has charged the 15-year-old boy with voluntary manslaughter and other offenses. On Sunday, March 12, two Montgomery High School administrators were reportedly placed on leave. The Santa Rosa Police Department announced on Monday that an officer has been assigned to stay on Montgomery High School’s campus through Tuesday after school administrators caught two students with knives on campus on Friday.

While the public discussion has often focused on whether or not to bring police officers back to campuses, public comments made clear that the districts’ problems run much deeper.

At a March 8 meeting of the Santa Rosa City Schools board, over 100 students, parents, teachers and community members shared a wide range of grievances with district officials. Central concerns included an increase in on-campus violence, poor communication from officials during too-frequent emergencies at multiple campuses, a severe lack of mental health resources and Montgomery High School’s failing infrastructure.

Santa Rosa school board - Will Carruthers — Two students look through a Santa Rosa City Hall window during an at-capacity school board meeting on March 8.

School Resource Officers

Early on in the debate over possible solutions, some focused on bringing police officers back to Santa Rosa public schools. In 2020, the school board declined to renew a contract with the Santa Rosa Police Department providing officers to monitor the district’s middle and high school campuses. In doing so, they overruled a committee created to study the issue. That committee had suggested continuing the program with some changes.

Less than a week after the stabbing, the Press Democrat’s editorial board endorsed bringing the officers back to school. Meanwhile, the Santa Rosa Police Officers Association, the union representing officers, took to Instagram to urge supporters to speak at public meetings.

“Fear comes from the unknown. By getting an opportunity to form a relationship with an officer on campus, these kids that are allegedly afraid will see that these officer[s] care for them deeply. These types of interactions only help everyone,” a March 4 POA po st stated.

However, support for this approach seems less than overwhelming among those who spoke at public meetings. At the March 8 school board meeting, 106 members of the public, mostly students, teachers and parents of past or current students, took the opportunity to address the board.

The majority of speakers asked for more resources and improved communication, without specifying whether or not they supported the school resource officers. Of those who specifically referenced the program, 17 speakers asked for the return of officers while 14 speakers opposed the idea.

Opponents cite studies about the tendency of school resource officers to disproportionately punish students of color. A 2020 report by a University of Connecticut researcher notes that school resource officers don’t guarantee the prevention of school shootings and other acts of violence, and can actually make students feel more unsafe.

“We need more support for mental health resources and not police in our schools. Around 65% of my peers are people of color, and the last thing I want to see is members of my Viking (Montgomery) family in an uncomfortable position because of the color of their skin,” Ava Parmelee, a Montgomery senior, told the board.

One student group, “Value Life, Not Violence,” is circulating a petition which calls for an increase in “non-police security,” among other changes.

Santa Rosa protest sign - March 8, 2023 — One student’s sign at the March 8 protest read “Treat the problem not the symptoms. This means increased mental health funding.”

Funding Shortage

Looming behind the SRO debate and other possible solutions is the district’s budget and employees’ salaries. Santa Rosa City Schools’ SRO program began in the 1990s, at a time when such programs were spreading across the country as part of a federally-funded response to on-campus shootings.

Until an agreement was allowed to expire in 2019, the Santa Rosa Police Department footed the bill for the school resource officer program. Alternatives suggested by some speakers, such as additional therapists, counselors and non-police campus supervisors, would likely be funded by the school district.

Vanessa Wedderburn, a district spokesperson, told the Bohemian that the district has added 27.45 full time equivalent employees in a range of support roles since the SRO contract expired.

However, the effort was not enough to prevent the fatal stabbing or, judging from public comments, make students and teachers feel safe on campus. Communication about existing resources was also lacking, according to comments at the board meeting. Multiple students said they were unaware that their school had a therapist. When they learned there was one, they were dismayed to learn the waitlist was hundreds of students long.

In order to make any improvements, the district will have to address its long-running struggle to recruit new employees. Though the district is offering a $1,000 hiring bonus, its job listing page currently lists 121 open positions.

Asked about the reasons behind the staffing struggle, Wedderburn stated, “We are experiencing the same challenges that most school districts and other industries are experiencing with recruitment.”

Other commenters suggested skimpy salaries are part of the problem. At the board meeting, Jim LaFrance, a longtime Montgomery High School teacher, said that campus supervisors tasked with keeping campuses safe are paid $17.40 per hour, far below the regional cost of living. Current job listings for campus supervisor positions at Maria Carrillo and Ridgway high schools, two other Santa Rosa City Schools campuses, list the same starting pay rate.

“The job they’re being asked to do for $17.40 an hour is herculean. It’s imperative that we have more support, and the people that are supporting us need to make a living wage,” LaFrance said.

For their part, school board members promised action while setting expectations.

“I think [California is] 31st in terms of per pupil funding in the country, and we’re the fourth largest economy in the world. So it is immoral that we spend as little money as we do because, let’s get real, we can’t afford all these things without a different budget,” Laurie Fong, a longtime district board member and local school administrator, said towards the end of the board meeting.

Two days later, district officials met with Rep. Mike Thompson to discuss methods of getting more money for the district. Only time will tell if they are able to make more money flow.

Dog Crisis: local shelters overwhelmed with pooches needing homes

Nikki Silverstein

Mar 14, 2023

Dog Crisis: local shelters overwhelmed with pooches needing homes

Overflowing with dogs, local animal shelters and rescues have put out an urgent call for people to adopt or foster. Purebreds, designer breeds and mutts of all ages and sizes await new homes.

The situation is dire, not just in the Bay Area, but also across the country. As dogs languish for many months at shelters, some face euthanasia to create space for the seemingly never-ending influx of strays and pets being surrendered by their owners. It’s an unsettling trend, especially since the practice of putting down adoptable dogs has declined in recent years.

“Shelters are desperate to get perfectly healthy, behaviorally sound animals out the door because there are more coming in than are exiting right now,” said Anna Harrison, admissions manager at the Humane Society of Sonoma County.

While shelters in Sonoma and Marin counties say they’re not forced to make the difficult decision of euthanizing dogs due to overcrowding, most are at capacity. When kennel space opens up, some of the North Bay facilities take in dogs from struggling shelters in Oakland, Contra Costa County and beyond.

Large adolescent dogs (LADS) make up the majority of canines needing homes. Sadly, they are staying in shelters for extended periods, even up to a year and longer. Siberian huskies and German shepherds are the two most common breeds filling the available kennels, which is a change from the Chihuahuas and pit bulls that inundated shelters prior to the pandemic.

“Huskies, for instance, are super cute as puppies—and then they grow up,” said Brian Whipple, operations manager at Sonoma County Animal Services. “It’s a challenge for folks to keep up with the amount of work the breed requires. These are dogs that need a job or a lot of exercise.”

Proper training can go a long way to help keep LADS with their owners, says Virginia Grainger, Marin Humane’s shelter behavior manager. She spoke with the Pacific Sun while working with Billie, a boisterous two-year-old male husky picked up as a stray.

“When they show up at the shelter, we find that these owner surrenders and strays weren’t trained when they were little,” Grainger said.

As Billie entered the play area, he jumped up on people. However, Grainger quickly had him following commands, using treats as positive reinforcement. Within a few minutes, the beautiful boy calmed down, and then gently approached folks for a back scratch and affection.

Pop culture often plays a role in the proliferation of certain breeds. In the early 2000s, Paris Hilton was frequently seen carrying her Chihuahua in a handbag, starting a fashion wave that eventually landed the breed in shelters at record numbers. Some believe Game of Thrones, the hit Netflix series featuring dogs that look like huskies, is responsible for the current husky craze.

The pandemic also contributed to the population explosion at shelters right now, says Nancy King, executive director of Pets Lifeline, a Sonoma Valley animal shelter.

“There was a phenomenon in dog adoptions during the pandemic,” King said. “Shelters and rescues couldn’t satisfy the number of people that wanted to adopt. We saw a lot more breeding at that time, including the large dog breeds.”

Now, those untrained LADS are helping to drive an unprecedented increase in abandoned and surrendered dogs. That issue, combined with lower adoption rates, has caused what animal welfare experts deem as a national crisis.

They point to a number of other factors, with the economic downturn and housing topping the list. More than 14% of dogs are surrendered due to housing issues, according to Best Friends Society, a national animal welfare agency.

“In our area, it really comes down to affordable housing and the rental market,” said Whipple, of Sonoma County Animal Services. “This is a tough place to find affordable housing that does allow pets.”

Inflation is also wreaking havoc for pet owners. Pet food prices jumped more than 15% year-over-year, while the cost of veterinarian services went up 10.3%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for February 2023.

A nationwide shortage of veterinarians and technicians is another obstacle for dog owners. Some vets aren’t taking new patients. Spay and neuter procedures are booked out months in advance. Even for people who have long-term relationships with their vet, it’s often difficult to get routine appointments for their dogs.

The best way to curb the shelter overpopulation is to ensure that dogs and their people stay together. In Marin and Sonoma counties, many local shelters have programs to help defray costs for pet owners, including free pet food and supplies; low or no cost spay/neuter services; vouchers for vet care; and vaccination clinics.

The laundry list of pet ownership concerns certainly gives pause to anyone considering adopting a pooch. This leads to fewer adoptions, resulting in dogs staying in shelters longer. For some canines, living in a noisy, fast-paced shelter is extremely stressful.

That’s where dog rescues enter the picture. A rescue is typically a nonprofit that pulls dogs from shelters and places them in foster homes.

Muttville, a Bay Area rescue that rehomes senior dogs, is strained under the current overpopulation crisis. Sherri Franklin, Muttville’s executive director and founder, says the rescue is fortunate to have a physical shelter, its own veterinary staff and a large network of foster homes. Still, they can’t keep up with requests coming in from shelters and individuals who are no longer able to care for their dogs.

Jen Coudron, the mutt manager at Muttville, is on the frontline, making the decisions about which senior dogs they can accept. People are frantic to get their dogs into Muttville.

“I’m staring at my intake box, and I know there are at least 50 requests,” Coudron said. “All of them very, very urgent. When I have to turn away a dog, it’s just heartbreaking because I know these people are out of options. But we’re maxed out, and the resources that I normally send people to are maxed out.”

Experts say more people stepping up to foster dogs will help alleviate the pressure on shelters and rescues. A pooch becomes a member of the family during the foster process, which can last from a few days to a few months. The foster parent gets to know the dog’s personality and works with the animal on socialization and training. Sometimes, the foster nurses the dog back to health as they recover from medical conditions or procedures. Mostly, the foster family provides love and stability.

Keri Fennell, Marin Humane’s vice president of shelter operations, says that in addition to needing fosters, they would love to have more volunteer dog walkers at the shelter. But her biggest wish is for people to provide a permanent home for a dog.

“Anyone who adopts helps the cause,” Fennell said. “Adopt, adopt, adopt.”