Former President Ronald Reagan visited Elk Grove High School in the winter of 1976. He came for a campaign rally regarding guns in schools. It was discovered by the school, and later reported in The Guardian, that a student had claimed that he was planning to shoot the former governor. Fortunately for Reagan, the Secret Service heard about the student and took him into custody during the speech. Thirty security guards had been chosen to protect him during his time at EG. The Secret Service successfully prevented the student from making any sort of attempt on Reagan’s life and the speech went on as planned. Before the speech began, Reagan made a surprise walk through the crowd. Normally Reagan would just walk on the stage, but he wanted to do something different to surprise and pique the interest of the students before covering a topic that some find boring . The security for the rally numbered six Secret Service men, four treasury men and 20 Elk Grove policemen at the speech. When Reagan went on to win the presidential election four years later, his visit became even more crucial to the history of Elk Grove.