In the wake of a deadly shooting at Natomas High school in mid April, parents, students and local officials in the North Sacramento community are mourning the death of a Black teenage boy and looking for solutions surrounding campus safety.

The shooting has sparked new conversations around student safety and gun violence. The district and Natomas officials have expressed an interest in bringing armed police officers, also known as student resource officers (SROs), back on campuses. But some parents and advocates worry it’s a “knee-jerk” reaction. 

On April 10, chaos and confusion ensued at the high school campus on Fong Ranch Road just after the last bell rang, leaving students in shock. 

“I was in a classroom with two teachers alone. All I saw was students running in the opposite direction, and that’s when you know something is wrong,” Natomas high Junior Logan Wilson said just hours after the incident. “I (was) just kind of making sure my friends are all right, texting them, letting my dad know what’s going on.”

Sacramento police arrived at the scene after reports a high school student – later identified as Discovery High student De’Jon Sledge – had been shot on campus, closing down the nearby streets to look for the suspect.

Four days after his death, police apprehended a 16-year-old suspect they said was a student at Natomas High school. The motives of the case remain under investigation, but the Sacramento’s District Attorney’s office determined the shooting was in self defense and took place during an attempted robbery. The DA is not pressing charges against the shooter. 

Natomas Unified asks for Student Resource Officers back

Natomas Unified’s Superintendent Robyn Castillo requested to reinstate a contract with the city of Sacramento to return SROs on April 14.

The city ended its three year contract with the district in late 2025 a few months in due to citywide staffing challenges in the police department.

The district wrote in its letter there is no way of knowing if having an SRO on campus that day would have prevented the shooting. But it noted the three previous officers in the district had strong relationships with students and staff.

“Having a Sac PD officer’s car parked in front of the campus sends a message,” the letter read. “Their presence is both a deterrent for behavior that is not tolerated on school property and reassurance for students and families.” 

In a written statement, the Sacramento Police department said the sergeant and three full time officers stationed with NUSD were reassigned back to patrol in January of 2026. Sac PD told CapRadio the contract was for around $2 million.

As a result of the contract termination, NUSD updated their safety plan in January and introduced a new position called a School Safety Officer. The position is intended to “address complex safety needs and support intervention and prevention efforts,” according to the website.

Micah Grant is president of the Natomas Unified School board and has been on the board for 10 years. Grant told CapRadio he was disappointed with the removal of the SROs at the beginning of this year. He said he wants them back.

“If the SRO contract came back, I would definitely be advocating to make whatever resources are available to do that,” He said. “My general philosophy is that we are in a better safety situation with SROs.”

Financially, Grant said a $2 million contract is “budget dust”– the school district can afford to both invest in prevention strategies and have SROs that build constructive relationships with students. 

“There have been some advocacy groups that would say, ‘put that money towards school psychs.’ To me it’s not a zero sum game,” he said. “We could do both and we did both.” 

Sacramento City Council members Karina Talamantes and Lisa Kaplan, both of whom represent Natomas, said they support reinstating the contract.

In the days after the shooting, Kaplan, a former Natomas Unified School Board member, posted on social media that SROs build essential relationships and provide security against real-world threats. 

“I will continue to urge for the reinstatement of School Resource Officers, prioritizing student safety,” Kaplan wrote on Instagram.

Though elected officials support the effort to bring them back both the city and its police department face significant financial hurdles. 

The city is facing a $66.2 million dollar budget deficit and may look towards cutting vacant positions within the city’s police force in June as one of many ways to get it back in the black. During the city’s March budget presentation, City Manager Maraskeisha Smith said vacant positions may be on the chopping block. 

“The city and the police department are committed to working closely with our partners to evaluate this request, understand current needs, and determine the most responsible path forward,” a spokesperson for the city said in a statement. 

Some oppose SROs, wants to address root causes 

Regardless of the financials, parents, students and teachers are weighing the benefits and consequences of having police on campuses in the country’s third most racially diverse school district. 

At a Natomas Black Parents United virtual meeting April 20, many attendees expressed interest in alternatives to policing, which particularly impact Black and brown students, such as a life skills class for students and community building as prevention. 

“Reinstating SROs is a knee-jerk reaction,” Jlay Tor, president of Natomas Black Parents United, said at the meeting. “It doesn’t take time to really get consensus from the community and parents on what should actually be done.”

Local pastor and Natomas Unified parent Montre “Tre” Everett echoed these concerns. Everett said from his experience working with young Black students and Natomas’s Black community, the worries about SRO placement on campus are widespread.

“ They see in the media how sometimes Black and brown students, not only students, but people are being treated by police officers, justly or unjustly,” Everett said. “It creates some apprehension, it creates some fear.”

While he does acknowledge the potential benefits to safety SROs can bring, Everett told CapRadio that a reactive approach to violence on campus does not get to the root causes afflicting students. 

“It is like putting a bandaid on a bullet wound,” he said. “ It’s not really doing much unless we understand the why behind the what, what’s going on in this child’s life and it’s going to take a team effort.”

Pastor Montre Everett poses for a photo with his daughter Monae Everett at her high school graduation from Inderkum High in 2024.Courtesy of Montre Everett

Everett’s daughter Monae graduated from the neighboring Natomas school Inderkum High and is currently a student at California State University Northridge. Monae, 20, said her school had both school security guards nicknamed “Tigers” and police officers.

“The school employed security, they were always nice. They would always deescalate more often than try to get kids in trouble,” Monae said. “The police officers, I would never see them interact with students on that type of level.” 

Monae said she and her friends never felt bothered by the police officers, but also doesn’t see them as effective in situations like the one on April 10. 

“ It is prevented by getting stricter gun laws and stricter gun control,” Monae said. “Also more mental health on campus and really having something for students to be into outside of their classes.”

Ernest Jenkins teaches art at Natomas Middle School. He said as a teacher, he doesn’t feel threatened by violence between students, but does get affected by it.  

“You don’t expect those kinds of things to come into school, but then when they come into the school like this it’s like, ‘Now what?’” Jenkins said. “ This is supposed to be the safe place. This is supposed to be the place where that stuff is at least held off until it’s back in the neighborhood.” 

Jenkins is torn on SROs. He said they set a bad precedent on school campuses, but does feel they could have made a difference in the recent shooting.

“ Them being just on campus or just being there, it definitely would’ve been a deterrent to the violence that that person inflicted that day,” Jenkins said. “They might not have tried it right then and there.”

Sacramento City Unified has no SROs

Each district within the Sacramento region has a different philosophy on having police on campus. Districts in Elk Grove, Woodland and Placerville all employ SROs, while Sacramento City Unified has none. 

Ursula Dewitt is a member of Black Parallel School board, a Sacramento based group of Black parents who advocate for students and families of color. Her group played a key role in removing SROs within Sacramento City Unified in 2020. 

“I don’t think you can police yourself to success,” Dewitt said. “Police don’t stop tragedies from happening. It doesn’t automatically mean that, and so that’s just a way to not address the core issues and the real problems within the schools and districts.”

Since the SROs have left Sac City Unified, DeWitt said their Safety Director Ray Lozada has created a “wraparound” approach to dealing with conflict and violence within Sacramento city schools.

“They have restorative practices, circles to resolve things,” DeWitt said. “(Lozada) has community partners he can go to, and we have full support. It doesn’t instantly solve the problems, but it faces a way to work the problems and also for the young people to give them a way to deal with their emotions.”

Dewitt told CapRadio the district needs to let students define what safety means for themselves, and provide more emotional learning and support for students. 

“As traumatic and horrible as this is, it’s an opportunity for Natomas to make some big differences and some big decisions,” DeWitt said.