Students from at least ten schools across Sonoma County held demonstrations against school violence on Wednesday. The students, from between the seventh and 12th grades, held walkouts, street marches and campus demonstrations, one week after a 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death during a fight with another student on the campus of Montgomery High School. The thousands of students from schools between Santa Rosa and Petaluma demanded better campus safety in the wake of the violence. It was one of the largest collective youth protests Sonoma County has seen in several years.
Meanwhile, journalists were barred from covering Wednesday’s student demonstrations at two high schools in Petaluma. Argus-Courier reporters were not allowed to stay on the campuses of Petaluma High School and Casa Grande High School. Two reporters signed in to cover the protest at Petaluma High School, but were then escorted off the campus by the principal. Petaluma City Schools Superintendent Matthew Harris called for the ban on both campuses. He says the district believes the presence of journalists would have constituted a disruption to a school event. Journalists were allowed on the school campuses of other districts in Sonoma County during Wednesday’s demonstrations.
KSRO’s Michelle Marques and Larry Olson spoke with Santa Rosa City Schools Superintendent Anna Trunnell regarding school safety and the public debate surrounding it.
