Juvenile trespassing on middle school campus is detained by an interim School Resource Officer, knife located in student’s pocket.

On Wednesday, December 13, 2023, a Santa Rosa Police Department (SRPD) officer assigned to Herbert Slater Middle School as an interim School Resource Officer (SRO) arrested a student from a different school who was trespassing on campus and found to be in possession of a knife. 

At approximately 9:30 am, SRPD Officer Luigi Valencia was meeting with a student who was experiencing a mental health crisis in the school’s administrative offices. Officer Valencia, a licensed mental health clinician, was working with the student while awaiting the arrival of the inRESPONSE Mental Health Response Team, when school administrators reported to him that an unknown juvenile was on campus. 

An alert physical education teacher contacted a juvenile male that he did not recognize on campus. As the teacher was advising school officials of the trespasser, the unknown juvenile began walking away from the area. Another staff member followed the juvenile off campus and onto Sonoma Avenue, where he was able to convince the juvenile to stop. While this was occurring, school officials notified Officer Valencia, who left the student he was helping in the care of a staff member while he responded to address the potential safety issue. 

Within minutes, Officer Valencia was able to catch up to the staff member and trespassing juvenile a few houses away from the school campus. During the investigation into the reason why the student was on the Herbert Slater Middle School campus, Officer Valencia learned the juvenile was in possession of a folding knife. 

The juvenile, a 14-year-old student at Comstock Middle School, was arrested and booked into Sonoma County Juvenile Hall for:

626.10 PC - Possession of a knife on school grounds

Due to the age of the suspect, his name or other identifying information will not be released. Based on information learned over the course of this investigation, it is believed the juvenile suspect is associated with a criminal street gang; however, there is no information available that indicates his presence on campus was gang motivated. It is not believed the student brandished the knife during this incident. 

This armed student was quickly detained because of the attentiveness and fast actions of school staff, and because of the immediate access to a police officer. Officer Valencia’s presence on campus allowed for an immediate response to a potential safety issue. Typically, school officials would need to call SRPD Communications Center, relay information, and wait for the next available officer(s) to be dispatched to the school from an unknown location in Santa Rosa. Interim School Resource Officers will be on all Santa Rosa City Schools high school and middle school campuses until classes are suspended for winter break. 

Santa Rosa Police Department case number 23-15676.

Media Contact:

Sgt. Patricia Seffens
Public Information Officer
707-543-3634
pseffens@srcity.org