SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An Elk Grove family and activists say several Black students were racially profiled at Elk Grove’s Cosumnes Oaks High School while school and law enforcement officials were responding to reports of a student with a firearm on campus.
COHS officials ordered a lockdown at the school on Oct. 29 after a witness reported seeing a student on campus with a gun, said Xanthi Soriano, a spokesperson for the Elk Grove Unified School District, in a statement. The lockdown was lifted within two hours and a firearm was never recovered. No charges were filed in connection to the incident, according to school and law enforcement officials.
It was an exciting morning leading up to the incident for Ja’len Flenory, 15, a Sophomore at COHS. The Junior Varsity football player was excited about what could be his final game of the season on the weekend before Halloween. He had just arrived at his second period media studies class when the lockdown took effect just after 10:00 a.m.
School lockdowns can be initiated for many safety reasons ranging from an active shooter on campus to police searching for a suspect for a non-school-related incident nearby.
Students were unaware of what officials were responding to, Flenory said. He was on edge that it could be an active shooter, so he texted his mother to let her know about the situation, Flenory said.
Roughly 45 minutes into the lockdown, the door to the classroom opened up, and eight deputies with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office entered, cellphone video recorded from inside the classroom shows. A deputy called Flenory’s name and escorted him from the classroom.
“I’m thinking, that my mom was able to come get me,” Flenory said.
Flenory was brought into the hallway where deputies asked him to place his hands behind his back, patted him down and questioned him about his backpack, he said. Deputies allowed him to return to class but did not provide details regarding the search. He said no educators were present during the pat-down and search.
“Mainly scared and frightened and shocked,” Flenory said. “Cause I was not expecting that to happen to me on that very day.”
Flenory says he later learned several other Black students were also detained, searched, and questioned by deputies in a similar fashion. Educators were present with other students, Flenory said.
His mother Keshia Redmond, raced to campus when she learned that the campus had locked down. She is furious after learning what happened and calls this an incident of racial profiling and is seeking answers from school officials about what happened during the incident.
ABC10 reached out to officials with the sheriff’s office for comment on this story and were referred to a statement issued by Elk Grove Unified School District.
“All protocols and procedures of the precautionary lockdown were followed by staff and students to secure the school and parents were promptly notified about the lockdown,” Soriano said in a press release. “Due to the concern of a possible concealed weapon on campus, school officials called the Sacramento County Sheriff to respond to the report of a possible weapon on the school campus.
“To address the imminent safety concerns, students identified by the witness were asked about possession of a gun and searched by law enforcement in adherence with established procedures and respect for personal dignity,”
The EGUSD has policies and practices in place specific to questioning and apprehension by law enforcement in their schools.
The specific policy which was overhauled in 2018, encourages any contact between students and law enforcement to be made outside of a school setting, unless necessary for student safety, the policy states. If law enforcement is to make contact with students, administrators should request to be present and make every effort to contact the student’s parent before the encounter.
“At the determination that a law enforcement interview of a student is needed, the principal or designee shall request to be present during the interview or questioning,” according to the EGUSD policy. “The principal’s or designee’s presence during the interview or questioning will be contingent upon the approval of both the law enforcement officer and the student.”
She did not receive a phone call from school administrators until eight hours after the incident, Redmond said. She is also very upset that her son was singled out based on what she believes was a vague description and there were no educators present during her son’s encounter with law enforcement.
The family is now working with community advocates and activists with the Black Youth Leadership Project to get those answers, who are seeking out other students who had a similar experience that day, said Lorreen Pryor-Trowel with BYLP.
Redmond is now considering legal action. She hopes to speak with school officials soon to learn more about what happened and discuss ways to prevent this from happening again.
