The Santa Rosa (California) City School Board has voted to launch a pilot program that returns police officers to high school campuses.
KTVU-TV reports that some of the most vocal advocates for the program were students themselves - including several from Montgomery High School, where a 16-year-old student was fatally stabbed in March.
"Please show us, through your actions, that you, the board, are listening to us, not just hearing us," said one of the students.
Students told board members that 90% of the more than 570 students surveyed want to bring police back to campus, permanently.
Santa Rosa High Schools had school resource officers assigned to it schools until 2020, when the board decided to suspend the program.
This year, after several violent incidents, fights and stabbings in the past nine months, the district superintendent and the city manager decided to bring police back to the high school campuses on a temporary basis--until winter break.
After an hours-long discussion, the school board voted 5 to 2 to create a program that brings school police back permanently.
