Saturday, April 28, 2018

Broward Student Lays Out Devastating Case Against School Board For Neglecting School Safety


Broward Student Lays Out Devastating Case Against School Board For Neglecting School Safety
ByJames Barrett
April 27, 2018
On Thursday, Broward County student Kenneth Preston, 19, published the findings of an in-depth investigation he has conducted over the last two months that has uncovered some alarming details about how the Broward County School Board neglected school safety leading up to the Parkland massacre.

Preston confronted the school board two weeks ago and gave his account of what he'd learned to The Hill. In his initial findings, Preston said that he believed that since 2014, the school has only spent around 5% of the over $100 million available to it specifically for school safety. In his new report, he details ways that the failure to invest in school safety may have led to the deaths of some of the students in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting. The school board's embrace of progressive programs, including The Promise Program and the Behavior Intervention Program, Preston maintains, has protected problem students — like the student who eventually slaughtered 17 people in February — shielding them from effective disciplinary measures and thus allowing them to remain threats to their peers.

"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 Runcie and members of the school board have failed at their essential role in keeping our students safe. Whether that’s because of incompetence or the incentive of federal dollars is for you to decide based on the evidence provided below," Preston writes. "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."

In a series of tweets Thursday, Preston provided key details from his investigation (h/t Twitchy):

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