Lawsuit Accuses SRCS of Campus Violence, Rape & Child Molestation

Following the stabbing of Montgomery High School Student Jayden Pienta, a wrongful death lawsuit describes alarming crime statistics on campus

Per a December 2023 article in Kron 4:

When 16-year-old Jayden Pienta was bleeding to death at Montgomery High School, school staff members failed to help him, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Pienta’s parents.

Pienta’s death at school was “tragic and preventable,” attorney Michael Henderson wrote in the lawsuit filed in Sonoma County Superior Court in September.

A 15-year-old freshman stabbed Pienta multiple times inside an art classroom in front of dozens of students and their teacher on March 1.

Earlier this week in juvenile criminal court, a judge ruled that Pienta was the aggressor of the fight, “orchestrated” the art classroom attack, and the freshman who stabbed him was “not responsible” for manslaughter. Judge Ken Gnoss also took issue with Pienta entering “the sanctity of a school classroom where (the freshman) was told he would be safe,” the Press Democrat reported.

In contrast, the civil lawsuit blames school authorities for not expelling the freshman despite prior fights at school, and even failed to help Pienta after he was stabbed.

Defendants listed in the civil lawsuit include Montgomery High School; Santa Rosa City Schools; Santa Rosa High School District; district superintendent Anna Trunnell, former MHS principal Adam Paulson, and vice principal Tyler Ahlborn. The slain teen’s mother, Misty Lenwell, and father are named as the plaintiffs.

“Pienta’s death was preventable and occurred due to the negligence of teachers, staff, administrators, superintendent, board members, and other personnel,” the lawsuit states.

Santa Rosa City Schools district did not immediately respond to KRON4’s request for comment on Friday.

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Sonoma County Superior Court Records indicate the lawsuit filed on behalf of Pienta’s parents has been active since September 12, 2023.

As of February 14, 2025, SRCS was ordered to respond to Cross-Defendant’s Special Interrogatories Nos. 37-41 without objection and to produce the documents responsive to Cross-Defendant’s Request for Production of Documents No. 3 without objection within 10 days of notice of an order on this motion.

The lawsuit alleges:

• MONTGOMERY HIGH SCHOOL crime statistics, document by calls to 911 and/or Santa Rosa Police Department dispatch, include 664 law enforcement responses to the campus between 1/1/18 and 5/24/23, including 47 reports of disturbances, 26 reports of battery, 14 reports of theft, 9 reports of fights, 8 reports of weapons on school grounds, 5 reports of threats of death or great bodily harm, 4 reports of child molestation, and 2 reports of rape.

• Videos posted by students on social media show that this activity was widespread amongst the student body and took place all over the campus during school hours. Social media postings for MONTGOMERY HIGH SCHOOL contain at least 47 videos of fights on campus posted by students in the 2022/2023 school year. There is minimal indication of school staff being present to monitor, prevent or intercede in these altercations, despite the presence at times of large numbers of students spectating. At least one video shows an altercation in a gym locker room in which a gang of male students attack and beat another male student. A school faculty member eventually appears to break up the fight, but does not detain the attackers. He appears to simply instruct them to leave. The student attacked in this altercation suffered injuries that required medical care at a local hospital.

• MONTGOMERY HIGH SCHOOL’s student body contains elements of multiple and feuding gang affiliations. This mix has led to past acts of violence, including fights and at least one prior stabbing incident in 2018 wherein two girls were arrested during a football game with one of the girls sustaining serious injuries.

• Despite this history of violence, and the clear need to engage in proactive interventions to quell violence and provide students with a safe environment on campus, Defendants, and each of them, chose to limit the resources available to protect students, including the removal of the Santa Rosa Police Department Resource Officer assigned to MONTGOMERY HIGH SCHOOL. Further, they failed to properly retain, train, equip and supervise staff to deal with these issues. The result was an unsafe school environment that left students vulnerable to violence and without adequate resources to address that violence.

• Teachers, students and parents have emphatically voiced their concern that MONTGOMERY HIGH SCHOOL does not provide adequate supervision or resources to their students. Libby Dalton, a parent of a MONTGOMERY HIGH SCHOOL student, has stated: “There’s a lot of fights at Montgomery. They just have that culture there that they fight. The kids fight there. They pick on each other and they try and stand up for themselves and then they all end up suspended.” (San Diego Tribune, 3/2/23). Teachers have also spoken up: “Teachers are not trained in this and should not be expected to break up fights, to have to chase gang members from other schools off our campus before they jump somebody. Staff has been assaulted and we need to protect them, as well. The saying: ‘Throwing the baby out with the bathwater,’ sums it all up on what the school board has done with canceling the SRO program.” (Press Democrat, 3/7/23). A student identified as Olive Blane, a freshman at MONTGOMERY HIGH SCHOOL, stated: “I just turned 15 years old, and I fear for my life every single day.” (Press Democrat, 3/7/23). Another teacher stated: “Teachers have been complaining for many months about an escalation of violence on campus. And what happened there (at Montgomery High School) could just as easily happen at any school in this district, Santa Rosa, [Maria] Carillo, Piner, Elsie [Allen]. Little to no consequences are handed down when earlier indications of violence happen.” (Press Democrat, 3/2/23).

The killing of Jayden Pienta by Daniel Pulido on March 1, 2023, was a direct and foreseeable result of the actions, inactions and failings of Defendants. Defendants conduct was a substantial factor in causing his death.

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The Santa Rosa City Schools District Board last discussed the existing litigation in closed session on June 11, 2025.

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