Aptos High School Community Forum on security and student stabbing

APTOS, Calif. (KION) During a community forum on Thursday night school administrators and Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart addressed a deadly stabbing at Aptos High School earlier this week.

School officials, like Jennifer Holm, immediately pointed out the need to revisit the Student Resource Officer program.

“I can say that the two suspects, not talking about the victim, but the two suspects are gang involved. And some of the charges will include some gang involvement,” Santa Cruz County Sheriff, Jim Hart.

In the meantime when students return to campus there will be deputies providing security.

Sheriff Hart says there has been a noticeable increase in violence at the High School, “We can look backwards now and see that there were things building up in this case.”

Sheriff Hart would like to see three things occur. Improve cell communication around the school after a number of calls to dispatch during the lockdown dropped. Bring back the code red program, along with the school resource officer program to restore a level of order on the Aptos campus.

“We have school resource officers on other two county high schools in Soquel and San Lorenzo Valley and so far this year there have been no acts of violence on either one of those campuses,” Sheriff Hart.

During the question and answer portion of the forum, parents asked about the two juvenile suspects in custody. According to Hart, the District Attorney's office in Santa Cruz is determining homicide charges on Friday. When asked about the motive in this stabbing, Hart confirmed that the 14 and 17-year-old suspects have gang affiliations.

"I can say that the two suspects, I'm not talking about the victim, but the two suspects are gang-involved and some of the charges will include some gang involvement - enhanced charges," said Sheriff Hart.

One of the suspects, according to Hart, was also involved in a school fight recently. Sheriff Hart also mentioned early intervention could stop a situation before it escalates. For the time being, the school district and facility at Aptos High want students to know they have plenty of resources to turn to.

“After an incident like this, there is a period of shock and the initial response is often not to ask for help immediately, so we want to be there tomorrow. We want to be there today,“ Eric Ochoa, Behavioral Health Director, Pajaro Valley Unified School District.

The student killed is not being identified out of respect for the family.