Santa Rosa Junior College English Professor Johnny Sarraf told the SRJC Board of Trustees Oct. 14 that Petaluma campus safety concerns he raised earlier this year have not been adequately addressed.
As the Oak Leaf first reported in September, Petaluma campus faculty members are concerned for their safety due to the lack of police presence on campus during key hours of the academic day.
Sarraf recounted to the board an April incident in which a student, who had been barred from class, returned and acted aggressively and disruptively, invading the professor’s space. When the professor called District Police, it took 45 minutes for officers to arrive. By that time, the student had fled the classroom, and it wasn’t until days later that police arrested the student when he tried to return.
In the letter sent to Dr. Chong, Sarraf requested a full-time police presence on campus. Two dozen faculty members signed a petition attached to the letter in support of the plea.
SRJC District Police Chief Matt McCaffrey sent second-in-command Lt. Dave Willat to the Petaluma Campus from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
While addressing the Board, Sarraf said many of the faculty members were disappointed by the response. He mentioned the police presence on campus was limited to daytime hours and asked rhetorically if there were no other times the campus needed a police presence.
“Why are our campus police officers and police vehicles operating well off-campus in different parts of the city of Santa Rosa, where I, as well as other people, have seen them?” Sarraf asked. “Yet we don’t have enough resources to have a regular presence on the Petaluma campus.”
Sarraf said he’s disappointed and stunned that six months have passed since the disruptive student incident and there is still no full-time police presence. During this time, other incidents have occurred that put faculty, staff and students’ safety in danger. “This is unacceptable,” Sarraf said.
Sarraf asked the Board how they will address the immediate need for police presence during operating hours, which he said was from 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. “Only then can we really have the right to profess that safety is our number one priority,” he said.
Board President Jeff Kunde thanked Sarraf and told him that board members would take his statements under advisement and get back to him.
Several members of the Petaluma faculty attended the meeting to support Serraf.
