ANTIOCH — The Antioch school district has agreed to pay $1.25 million to the family of a 16-year-old student killed in a campus shooting, after officials had raised repeated concerns about safety at Deer Valley High School.
Court filings in the family’s lawsuit paint a grim picture of conditions at the campus and how it prepared for crosstown rival sporting events known to attract large crowds. The school was in violation of state laws requiring a comprehensive safety plan and certification of security guards, according to the lawsuit. There also were not enough guards assigned to the campus.
Looking back, one former school board member gave the high school a “D” grade in safety in response to a question during a 2025 deposition. Another testified that top officials became fearful and “were trying to cover their tracks” after 16-year-old Jonathon Parker was killed, because they were aware of serious safety shortcomings.
“We could do better, and I think the district should have done better,” Ellie Householder, a school board trustee from 2018 to 2022, testified last year. “And I think that Jonathon Parker didn’t have to die.”
School officials say they have made campuses safer in the years since Parker was killed.
“The district has taken meaningful steps to strengthen safety measures, refine oversight, work closely with community partners to support secure campuses, and intentionally build a culture of care where every student feels safe, supported, and connected,” said Jag Lathan, AUSD’s board president, in a statement.
At a Deer Valley High basketball game against Antioch High, Parker was shot and killed in a dark campus parking lot while he, his brother and two friends were attempting to fend off an estimated 25 attackers — a mix of teen boys and adults. Three months earlier, police testified, an estimated 20 students had fought near the campus football stadium.
Despite the warning signs, when Parker’s 15-year-old killer fired the fatal shot, there were no police officers on campus, no security guards in the area and site safety officers were not trained to handle a school shooting, according to witness testimony.
Parker’s mother told this news organization that his killers may have been angry that Parker had intervened when they were bullying another student days earlier. He was 6-foot-4 and sometimes served as a “protector” to students who had a harder time defending themselves, she said in 2020.
Court records show Parker sensed danger the night he was killed and called his brother for help, telling him, “there’s some people up here from an incident that happened before,” his brother testified at a 2022 civil deposition.
Parker’s brother arrived to take him home, but Parker stopped to chat with friends on his way to the parking lot, including a campus security guard who headed in the opposite direction.
Moments later, a crowd began to form and appeared confrontational. Parker told his brother to “hurry up” and get to the car, but it was too late. Parker, his brother and two friends were surrounded by more than two dozen people.
They chose what seemed like the only option, his brother testified. Parker squared off in a one-on-one fight with Daiveon Allison, then 15, of Pittsburg, who later was adjudicated in juvenile court for the killing.
About a minute into the fight, chaos erupted. The four teens were mobbed by the crowd. Parker’s brother was knocked to the ground and kicked until one of his ribs broke. From the pavement, he heard gunfire and scrambled to help his brother. Parker lost consciousness and died the next day at a hospital.
“(He) called for my name. That’s the last thing he said,” his brother testified.
In the aftermath, police described warning signs that violence had been escalating at the high school.
In 2017, officers responded to five reports of fights. In 2018, there were four, Sgt. Loren Bledsoe testified. By 2019, that number had climbed to 11.
In 2020, then-Superintendent Stephanie Anello — who was ousted in 2024 amid a staff bullying and harassment scandal — said staffing levels were “adequate” and there was “absolutely no indication that someone was planning to commit such a heinous act.”
But former AUSD trustee Crystal Sawyer-White testified that safety concerns had been raised before Parker’s death.
She recounted how a Richmond parent had threatened a Deer Valley vice principal before a sporting event and said lighting concerns had surfaced at that time. During a campus tour, she noticed there were no cameras in the parking lot where Parker was later killed. She testified that the district had “failed” to keep him safe and, when asked, also gave school safety a “D” grade.
“As far as sporting events, you know, that wasn’t a safe area for John John to be,” she said, using Parker’s nickname.
Householder agreed. She testified that the district appeared more focused on adopting a safety plan that simply “checks off a box,” adding, “I had this intuition that things were really sketchy, but I was kind of stonewalled with information.”
Looking back, she said adults never should have allowed such a large crowd to gather without intervention.
“The lights were dim. The gates were locked. Why were there so many children there?” Householder testified. “To me, it’s not rocket science.”
Since then, Householder agreed things have changed for the better, but added she doesn’t keep up with the details as well as when she served on the school board. In an email to this news organization, she said AUSD has shown “genuine growth … regarding student safety.” Six months after Parker was slain, the city accepted a $750,000 grant to return police officers to school campuses.
Authorities say Parker’s death also fueled a cycle of retaliation among teens in Antioch and Pittsburg.
A letter obtained by this news organization from one of Parker’s teachers, written shortly after his death, described the lasting impact.
She wrote that several teens were preparing to rob her on BART property until they recognized her as a teacher Parker liked and stopped.
“Jonathon wouldn’t have liked what we’ve become,” one said, according to the letter.
Judith Prieve contributed to this report.
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