14-year-old girl brutally assaulted in bathroom at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa; fellow student arrested
Santa Rosa police arrested a student at Montgomery High School Tuesday after she allegedly led a group assault on a 14-year-old girl in a restroom.
Police were called at 1:20 p.m. to the school for a report of an assault. Four juvenile females allegedly jumped the victim after following her into a restroom.
Investigators said before the victim could leave, she was surrounded by the group and attacked by one of the students, also a 14-year-old girl.
The victim was punched excessively in her head and face and kicked in the head multiple times. The suspect also allegedly ripped large amounts of hair from the victim's head before stealing the victim's cellphone and leaving the bathroom.
Students reported the assault to school officials, who immediately responded and began tending to the victim and following the group of suspects as they fled campus toward Mayette Avenue. School officials were unable to detain the four suspects, who left the area before officers arrived.
The victim was taken by her parent to a hospital, where she was treated for her injuries and later released.
Police arrested the alleged primary aggressor at approximately 5:30 p.m. Tuesday after she returned to her home on Charles Street in Santa Rosa.
The suspect was booked into juvenile hall on suspicion of robbery and assault likely to cause great bodily injury.
Police said school officials are investigating the role the other three students played in the assault.
The latest incident of violence between students at Montgomery High has reignited the fight to get safety resource officers on campus.
In March 2023, a student at Montgomery High School was stabbed to death during a fight with two other students. The incident led to the school's principal and assistant principal being placed on leave when two more students were arrested for bringing knives onto campus in the weeks that followed the incident.
In September 2023, two Montgomery High students who are brothers were arrested in connection with an off-campus fight and an assault rifle being brought to school.
In December 2023, the Santa Rosa City Schools District temporarily placed a police officer at each of its high schools because of an increase in violent fights on campuses. Those safety resource officers were no longer present after students returned from school following Christmas break.
But after Tuesday's attack, there are those who are saying the district needs to take a more permanent approach to the problem.
"It's heartbreaking," said Melissa Stewart. "I'm a parent and it's hard not to get emotional because I think of that girl as being...I have a daughter. And I can't imagine that experience for her and her family. It's going to affect her the rest of her life."
Stewart has a child at Montgomery High and was so alarmed about the violence that has occurred there that she co-founded a parents' group called the Safe Campus Alliance. But her shock turned to anger when the group's call for the return of campus safety resource officers, or SRO's, was ignored.
"It feels like we're asking for something that's falling on deaf ears," said Stewart about most recent beating. "We're surrounded by other school districts that do have safety resource officers and the programs are going really well. And they're not having the same incidents on their campus. So I think it's something that absolutely needs to be explored, and we're not seeing that by a lot of our school board members."
Students who spoke with KPIX agreed that the problems had not gone away after they returned from break.
"It's kind of annoying, because they sometimes have to block the bathroom and make sure...check there's no fights or anything," said a freshman named Melanie.
"There's just a lot of fights and, like, altercations with a lot of students on this campus," said another student. "There's a lot of gang violence, too. A lot of people don't talk about the gang violence, but there is a lot."
Santa Rosa is no stranger to gang violence. Just Wednesday, police confirmed that the six teens arrested in connection with a recent stabbing at a park were "deeply affiliated with a dangerous criminal street gang."
But Stewart doesn't blame the high school. In her view, it is the school board policies that have removed disciplinary action and campus supervision in the name of social justice.
"Yes, there are some trustees on our school board that have voiced very strongly that they will never -- as long as they're on the board -- they will never see safety resource officers on our campus," she said.
She thinks it's sending a message to students that there are no consequences for fighting.
"I can't imagine it sends a message that there is going to be a consequence!" Stewart said. "Yeah, I think there needs to be a deeper discussion. It needs to be taken seriously by all of our school board trustees."
The district has voted for a pilot program to reintroduce SRO's but currently there are no officers on campus.
Meanwhile, Santa Rosa police reported the number of juveniles arrested in possession of firearms soared 500% in 2023 and blamed gang activity for the spike in gun arrests.
John Ramos contributed to this story.