by Cillian Zeal
An
independent report from a student journalist who attended Broward
County, Florida, schools says there was significant inattention paid to
security issues in the years leading up to the Parkland shooting.
According to the piece, written by 19-year-old Kenneth Preston and published on Medium,
only a fraction of the money allocated for school security in Broward
schools was actually spent on safety measures and that Obama-era school
behavioral policies, purportedly designed to counteract racial bias, led
to problem students like the shooter evading punishment.
“After
weeks of research, searching through thousands of pages of government
documents, and speaking with dozens of officials, I have come to the
conclusion that Superintendent [Robert] Runcie and members of the school
board have failed at their essential role in keeping our students
safe,” Preston wrote. “Whether that’s because of incompetence or the
incentive of federal dollars is for you to decide based on the evidence
provided below.
“Ultimately, no matter what laws pass, the
extent, or how infrequent these shootings become, if the people who were
complicit in facilitating an environment in which something like this
could occur don’t face consequences, then there is no justice.”
Preston
wrote that of $800 million in voter-approved school funding available
to Broward schools, “$104,325,821 was designated specifically for school
safety.” “Of that money, only $5,584,512 (roughly 5.3%) has been spent
since its passage,” he said. “If the school safety money continues to
be doled out at the current rate of 1.76% spent per year, Broward Public
Schools will not see the entirety of that safety money for another 53
years, or the year 2071.” The decision not to spend the money on
school safety didn’t just have hypothetical consequences in the Parkland
shooting, either.
As The Blaze
reported, one of the safety items that was supposed to be installed in
Broward schools was a device that would determine if a fire was actually
present after a fire alarm was pulled. That device was never
installed, and the Parkland school shooter pulled the fire alarm to
force students out of their classrooms, making them easier targets.
Preston also claimed that Broward’s implementation of the Promise
Program and the Behavior Intervention Program — Obama-era programs
designed to stop the “school-to-prison” pipeline by lessening
punishments at schools with “disproportionate discipline rates” — might
have contributed to the shooting.
“In March of 2013,
the Department of Education listed Broward County as one of those
counties with ‘disproportionate discipline rates,'” Preston wrote.
“Months later, Robert Runcie and the Broward School Board applied and
become finalists for the ‘Race to the Top’ grant after promising their
intent to have an ‘evaluation of proposed indicators around attendance,
suspensions, and arrests and promoting school-wide, positive behavior
interventions.’
“Soon after, Superintendent Robert
Runcie, the School Board, and the Sheriff’s office created ‘Promise,’ a
program intended to address the ‘school-to-prison pipeline’ by outlining
13 misdemeanors that formerly would have been referred to law
enforcement, but are now dealt by administrators instead. “Those
misdemeanors include harassment, fighting, assault, and threats — all of which Nikolas Cruz was reported for, but never arrested.” (Emphasis Preston’s.)
“Robert
Runcie claims the shooter never benefited from the program because he
was never formally enrolled in the Promise Program,” Preston noted.
“Broward Schools released a statement saying, ‘the District has no
record of Nikolas Cruz committing a PROMISE-eligible infraction or being
assigned the PROMISE while in high school.’ “However, Jeff Bell,
President of the Broward Sheriff’s Union and supporter of the Promise
Program says, ‘There’s no documented report that he was ever enrolled
into the PROMISE Program. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t confronted with something and just let go.‘” (Emphasis Preston’s.)
Preston
also called out a “culture of corruption” on the county school board
when it came to spending and noted that a grand jury found the
corruption so deep it suggested in 2011 that the board be dissolved entirely.
The
student journalist also noted Runcie’s dubious performance at his
previous job with Chicago Public Schools — where he was demoted three
months before accepting his position with Broward County — and the fact
that the county’s school spending habits were under scrutiny by state
tax watchdog groups.
Since the shooting, Broward has
instituted some transparency, although not quite of the kind that
Preston might support. The most visible school safety measure taken
since the massacre (literally) is mandating transparent backpacks for students. Meanwhile, activists continue to blame the whole thing on the diabolical AR-15 — which is a solution Broward Sheriff Scott Israel
seems perfectly fine with, since it absolves his department of any
public liability in the matter. Meanwhile, Superintendent Runcie
remains in his job, much like Sheriff Israel, and he isn’t making any
moves toward transparency.
“Without knowing Superintendent
Runcie’s motives for taking the actions he did, it’s nearly impossible
to say why the money wasn’t spent and why such lax disciplinary policies
were instituted,” Preston notes in conclusion, calling for an
independent investigation.
“What is clear is that the
Superintendent failed to take the appropriate security precautions. He
has not at any point after the tragedy at MSD acknowledged the
mismanagement of school safety funds, indicated any sort of intention to
reform the way the Board functions or assumed any responsibility for
the systematic failures that occurred in failing to properly deal with
(the shooter).”
Preston said Runcie called his meticulously sourced investigation “fake news.” “I reached out to Florida Taxwatch, and Vice President of Research Robert Nave has told me that my numbers are correct,” he wrote.
