A change.org petition that raises safety and accountability concerns within the Saratoga Union School District has been gathering steam.
The petition, which was created anonymously on Christmas Day, centers on the District’s acknowledgment that a volunteer who was not properly vetted participated in after-school activities at Redwood Middle School during the 2024-25 school year.
The issue was disclosed to the community in a Nov. 12 statement.
Community members who publicly addressed some of the issues in the petition at the Dec. 11 board meeting were “dismissed” and “minimized,” according to the petition, which had collected 91 signatures as of Feb. 17.
SUSD trustee and board clerk Cynthia Miller said in an interview with the Los Gatan, however, the petition doesn’t “have the full story.”
“We get stuck in the middle where we would love to tell the full story, but to do so would be to violate that privacy responsibility we have (to the students),” she said.
Miller said the District “immediately” hired Lincoln White Investigations, a third-party investigator, after learning about the uncleared volunteer.
Background checks are conducted in “substantially the same” way as in nearby districts, so Miller said the District plans to share its findings with them—as well as the Saratoga community.
“We’ve discovered a gap in our process,” she said. “There’s a really good chance some of these other districts have a gap too, so we have an obligation to share with them what we found out and how we think we can plug that gap.”
No timeline has been set for the investigation’s conclusion because the district cannot interfere with the process.
Alicia De Fuentes, a parent in the Saratoga community, said in an interview with the Los Gatan that she felt “uncertain” if the District board recognizes its responsibility to properly enforce and uphold safety protocols.
Redwood Middle parents first approached her in September 2025 with concerns about the uncleared volunteer working with their children, De Fuentes said.
After looking into the issue with a few parents, De Fuentes filed a formal complaint regarding the volunteer with the District on Nov. 11, one day before SUSD sent an email acknowledging the matter.
De Fuentes said the parents first approached her, instead of District leadership, because they were afraid they might be retaliated against.
As an active community member, De Fuentes has been very vocal on the issues addressed in the petition and District leadership accountability, such as during the December board open session, as well as at the Jan. 15 meeting.
“What parents want (to know) is the scope of the investigation. Because the scope…gives an indication of how seriously they are taking this,” De Fuentes said in the interview, adding she wants the District to get to the bottom of who was responsible for the lapse.
De Fuentes said she would have liked to see a direct message from the administration stating any administrators involved would be placed on paid leave pending the conclusion of the investigation.
The petition also referenced allegations of sexual assault and repeated physical harm. Those allegations are not within the scope of the investigation and are “mischaracterizations and inaccurate,” said Miller.
A Jan. 12 update to the petition stated the primary purpose of the petition is “to ensure that the facts surrounding (the investigation) are fully disclosed, that accountability measures are clearly communicated and that concrete safeguards are put in place so this never happens again.”
“Concerns were first raised through formal channels, supported by documentation and public records,” reads the petition. “When those concerns did not result in clear communication or reassurance, they were brought forward publicly—not to inflame division, but to protect students and ensure the issue was taken seriously.”
Miller said no one approached her to discuss the contents of the petition after it was published.
“I feel like my approach to being on the board is to try to be extremely open to the community, and if anyone felt like they were concerned, they could email me, call me—so going to change.org was disappointing,” said Miller.
The District has ample vehicles of communication, including board office hours, weekly emails with updates and summaries of board meetings, and parent advisory councils, she added.
When the investigation concludes, District leadership “will come through and say, ‘here’s what was found out,’ and here’s what we’re having to do as a result of it,” Miller told the newspaper.
The District says it may agendize the investigation for the next board meeting, if the results are ready.
“One of the things that’s frustrating to me is that sometimes people think, because you refuse to agendize (an item) now, it means you’re trying to hide it. We can’t do that now,” Miller said. “We have to let the investigation run its course in an unbiased, uninfluenced manner.”
