Takeimi Rao

Counselors and therapy dogs will be on hand at a public memorial for Takeimi Rao at Rincon Valley Middle School at 6 p.m. tonight as friends and staff are invited to gather to remember the girl who just graduated eighth grade from the Badger Road campus.

Rao died during a weekend sleepover at her Santa Rosa home after she and three friends reportedly drank soda spiked with vodka and became violently ill. Rao was found dead Sunday morning.

In addition to tonight’s gathering at the middle school and a public memorial at 2 p.m. Friday at St. Eugene’s Cathedral, counselors will be on the alert at Santa Rosa City Schools where students may feel renewed grief when they return to class in August, said Mark Klick, assistant superintendent of Santa Rosa City Schools.

Klick said he’ll begin reaching out to teachers and staff to alert them of the girl’s death so they can keep an eye for students’ distress when classes begin.

“When it happens in the summer, the counselors become involved,” he said. “The counselors would start to work with students in the know. These types of things tend to come forward rather quickly.”