Wow! Thanks for posting that, it highlights complications.
Each school district will handle trouble uniquely. This depends on their discipline code and their state laws which may exceed any federal mandates.
My point is that this particular district, Broward - put into place a liberal non-punitive discipline policy that allowed for ‘Cruz’ to happen. Their goal appears to be to coddle and protect the criminal student at all costs disregarding the detrimental effect on the rest of the kids. State laws are not being enforced because the school district is interfering with state law deliberately in cahoots with the local LEO and local judicial system (all signatories of the plan).
They have determined that a juvenile delinquent’s rights supersede the rights of all the other classmates to get an education. They disregarded the health and safety of their students and their staff and put their very lives in jeopardy. They lost, bigly.
Parkland, Penn vs. Parkland, Fla. While Parkland*Florida ignored a seriously menacing threatening student who promised to kill, Parkland*Pennsylvania arrested two taunting relatively minor threatening students who intimidated their school.
No monkey business there. Student safety comes first!!!
The PA punks were physically removed from their school by the end of the school day and held in a juvenile detention facility until they were adjudicated and proven not to pose a threat to their fellow students. This happened December 2017.
While HIPPA and Federal education mandates must be obeyed, schools still have the power to deal appropriately and aggressively with dangerous students. It’s their duty.
To your final comment- When the system is dysfunctional (like-Broward) every parent who can afford to sends their children to private schools or home schools.
Great post. Two key issues....the mental health debate and the gun debate.
To be sure every teacher in that school saw the warnings signs with Cruz but the culture of their public educational system didn’t allow for a proper intervention and the legal system prevented “anyone” from taking strong corrective action. He was clearly off the chain and law enforcement were called to deal with him over and over.
He was also under the eye of mental health professionals but the laws, thanks to the ACLU, protect the individual to the point that unless they are an overwhelmingly clear danger to themselves or others....nobody can do anything. Even then, you can’t hold someone more than 72 hours before you legally have to put them back on the street. Most counties in the country don’t have enough beds to handle the level of the current mental health crisis. For the seriously mental ill....jail is generally the first stop until the condition is truly identified.
The Mental Health system is broken is this nation and until state legislatures wake up to that fact....these events will continue to happen. Our local news is filled with stories nightly of mentally ill people running the streets creating chaos.
The Broward sheriff gets it now and they have ordered armed law enforcement with rifles at every school. That’s the cost of a society that can’t isolate extremely troubled individuals.
The gun debate is a totally separate issue. Most of us hadn’t heard of a bumpstockj until the nutcase in Vegas showed up. Yes, lines in the sand need to be drawn regarding the level of lethal weaponry allowed.
If all my unhinged neighbors have SAWS I’ll probably have to have put land mines in my front yard to keep them at bay.