On the afternoon of Thursday, October 15, 2026, a group of  Middle School 7th graders, all about 12 years old, stopped on their bike ride home to play hide-and-seek along the Mission Creek Trail. Nearby high school staff had reported what might have been a fight in the area. School Resource Officers who are Fremont police officers in full uniforms, and administrators from two schools responded.

School administrators later acknowledged in writing that they do not know whether any fight took place. Even so:

• The children were questioned by police officers and school staff for close to 20 minutes.
• No parent was present, and no parent was contacted.
• The children repeatedly said they had not been fighting, but the questioning continued.
• Families report that the children felt pressured to confess and to blame one another.
• At least one child was so distressed that he was ready to cry..
• Staff photographed at least one child’s injuries as possible evidence. Those injuries were from a documented bike accident weeks earlier.
Afterward, the district stated that the trail is not school property and falls under city police jurisdiction. Meanwhile, the city’s officers were assigned through the schools. Families were left without a clear answer about who was responsible for how their children were treated.

Why this matters

We support keeping students safe, and we understand that adults must respond when a fight is reported. But responding to a safety concern is different from questioning 12-year-olds as suspects, at length, without telling their parents. Children should not learn that the adults responsible for their safety will hand them over to police questioning without calling home. Families should also be able to raise concerns without fearing that their children will face retaliation at school.

We, the undersigned, ask that:

1. Parents are notified before, or as early as possible during, any police or School Resource Officer questioning of a student, especially students in middle school and younger.
2. The role of School Resource Officers is clearly defined, including whether officers assigned to one school may question students from another, and what authority they have off school property.
3. Photographing students’ bodies or injuries requires parent notification and consent, with clear rules for storage and deletion.
4. Every SRO interaction with a student is documented, with timely written notice to the student’s family.
5. The district’s SRO agreement with the Fremont Police Department is reviewed in public, with input from families and data on how often students are questioned.
6. Students and families are protected from retaliation when they raise concerns, with a way to report suspected retaliation outside the school site.
7. The October 15 incident is reviewed, the body cam footages released and the affected families receive a written account of what happened and of any records created about their children.

Organized by:

Amrutha Venkatesha, Hopkins Middle School parent | vamruthars.subscriptions@gmail.com

Sang Youn Oh, Hopkins Middle School parent | unit.response@gmail.com