Faculty and parents of students at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma have expressed their outrage over the school’s response to a Feb. 17 incident in which two masked assailants barged into a classroom and attacked a student during class before being chased off by other students.

The Friday morning assault — which prompted an email to parents and students from Principal Dan Ostermann later that day — turned out to be part of an ongoing feud between students and did not result in serious injuries to the victim, according to the Petaluma Police Department.

At the time, however, it wasn’t known who the attackers were or whether they were still on the campus, and school officials made no immediate announcement or instituted a lockdown of the campus.

Community members have since taken to social media to decry what they characterize as a chronic lack of proper communication or following of safety protocols at the school.

“In two meetings since (the assault), Casa administration shifted blame to teachers for not issuing bathroom passes correctly, not taking attendance correctly, and not being able to tell when a student is lying about having a phone with them or not,” a group of parents, teachers and other community members stated in a message posted to Facebook last Friday.

“Teachers begged for answers. They said they were filled with rage, disappointment, anger, fear.”

This story will be updated.

Don Frances is editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier. Reach him at [email protected]