Is Petaluma become a surveillance state? (Getty Images)

Petaluma’s school board hit the brakes Tuesday night after parents discovered — and then read aloud — safety plan language telling staff to “collect intelligence” on student walkouts, including monitoring platforms like “Instagram, Facebook, YouTube” and other communication channels.

The blowback was immediate. Parents described the language as surveillance, questioned where the information could end up, and said it shattered trust — especially as the district is also tightening up how it responds to possible immigration enforcement near campuses.

One parent told trustees the walkout section wasn’t what people thought they were signing.

“We found a section that was added after they had signed it without their acknowledgement,” the parent said, pointing to a section labeled “unlawful demonstration or walkout,” which included “step one, collect intelligence on upcoming events and important issues.”

The parent then read from the plan’s description of monitoring student communications: “This includes monitoring of commonly used student communication channels, such as social websites on the Internet, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and messaging and blogging sites…”

“Slipping this in after it was signed by eight people feels like a breach of trust,” the parent said. “This feels like some kind of ongoing surveillance.”

Another parent said the bigger issue is what happens once schools start “collecting intelligence.”

“I’m not really sure who is collecting the intelligence or what that intelligence would be used for,” the parent said, asking whether it could go to “local law enforcement” or even “ICE.”

A third parent pushed the district to rewrite the section so it treats walkouts as a safety-and-learning moment, not a reason to monitor kids. “There’s one bullet in here about creating an educational component around the issues of concern,” the parent said. “I think that’s the most important bullet in this whole thing.”

District staff didn’t defend the language — but did dispute the idea it was newly inserted. The administrator presenting the safety plans (addressed during the meeting as “Samantha”) said the wording has been in Petaluma City Schools templates for a long time.

“The language that you see before you in the plans has been language that we’ve had in PCS for many years,” she said. “It isn’t new.”

She recommended swapping it out for something focused on supervision and safety: “In the event of a walkout, students would be grouped in such a way that they can be safely supervised with the staff that remains until normal dismissal time that day.”

Trustees agreed the old language reads badly. Clerk/Vice President Ryan Williams said he traced it back to an outside template. “It feels like Patriot Act kind of language,” Williams said.

District leaders also tried to tamp down fears that the district is actually monitoring students online.

“There are no secret police,” one administrator said. “There’s no monitoring this.”

“It’s outdated language,” the administrator added. “I apologize to people who came up and spoke and said, looked like it got snuck in. There was definitely no intent there to mislead anyone.”

Board President Mady Cloud said the public pushback did what it’s supposed to do — force a correction.

“It’s good,” Cloud said. “It was brought up so that we can change it. Because we certainly don’t want that in there.”

Then the board took action. Trustee Caitlin Quinn moved to delay approval of all comprehensive safety plans so staff can rewrite the walkout section and bring the plans back later this month.

“I move to table the school’s comprehensive school safety plans … until the next February meeting,” Quinn said.

There’s also a second, related reason this is moving fast: the district is updating its immigration enforcement policy, and trustees want safety plans across all campuses to match the final district rules — not a patchwork of site add-ons. In the same discussion, trustees flagged that an ICE-related guidance page appeared in at least one site plan and should be removed and replaced with the district’s finalized policy language.

Bottom line: the “collect intelligence” wording is on the way out. Staff is now drafting replacement language, and trustees expect the revised safety plans to return at the Feb. 24 board meeting.