Bakersfield College hosts high school homecoming threatened with cancellation due to gang violence
Bakersfield College announced it will be hosting a homecoming game next Friday between neighboring high schools whose surrounding communities have recently experienced a wave of deadly shootings.
The McFarland High School Cougars will be facing off against the Delano High School Tigers at Bakersfield College’s Memorial Stadium. The storied venue in Bakersfield is about 30 miles southeast of McFarland where the game was originally scheduled.
The Kern Community College District’s Early College program has a large presence on both campuses, so many of its students are also dually enrolled Bakersfield College students. College and high school officials looked at the new venue as a chance to expose more students to the college experience.
“Chancellor Sonya Christian and her administration continue to provide students with college experiences, and Friday’s homecoming game is just another real-time event for McFarland and Delano students to get a taste of the college lifestyle,” said Superintendent Samuel Aaron Resendez, in a statement.
Delano and McFarland straddle a dividing line between northern and southern gangs in the state. Six people have been killed in shootings since Oct. 4 in communities in northern Kern County and Tulare County.
The threat of gang violence cast a dark shadow on fall activities such as football and homecoming. Law enforcement said that there are no credible threats to schools, but threats of retribution circulating on social media have made many in the school communities uneasy. Three school districts, including McFarland Unified and Delano Joint Union High, canceled after-school activities this week. Robert F. Kennedy in Delano canceled its homecoming scheduled for tonight.
State Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D-Bakersfield) wrote a letter to State Attorney Rob Bonta, calling on him to create a regional task force to address violence in the region. She called Kern a “rural and underfunded” county. The county has the highest murder rate in the state.