Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has suspended four Broward County School Board members after a grand jury concluded, among other things, that a safety-related alarm that could have possibly saved lives during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting still hasn’t been installed 4 years after the tragedy.
DeSantis suspended board members Patricia Good, Donna Korn, Ann Murray and Laurie Rich Levinson following recommendations of the statewide grand jury due to “incompetence, neglect of duty and misuse of authority.” The suspensions are effective immediately.
DeSantis also made four appointments to the Broward County School Board in the place of the four suspended members.
On Feb. 14, 2018 Nikolas Cruz opened fire with a rifle at the high school in Parkland, Fla., killing 17 people and wounding 17 others. An unarmed campus monitor considered activating an emergency code to warm law enforcement was on campus but hesitated because his training supposedly taught him not to do so without seeing a gun or shots fired.
The grand jury report said the safety alarm “was and is such a low priority that it remains uninstalled at multiple schools,” and “students continue to be educated in unsafe, aging, decrepit, moldy buildings that were supposed to have been renovated years ago.”
The grand jury was impaneled by the Florida Supreme Court in February 2019 and asked to examine four issues, including whether public entities and school officials committed fraud and deceit by mismanaging funds devoted to school safety.
In its final report, the statewide grand jury found the board members mismanaged the SMART Program, a multimillion-dollar bond specifically solicited for school safety and renovation initiatives.
The grand jury also found the school board was aware of serious problems with the SMART Program, including the former superintendent’s inability or unwillingness to manage the problems or take action.
To read the full Statewide Grand Jury report, click here.
