Unfortunately, what the paper discovered leads to more questions than answers.
What did the paper reveal?
The most alarming discovery the paper made was that Broward County Schools, including superintendent Robert Runcie and other district administrators, appear more concerned with public relations and how their schools look rather than addressing misbehaving students and ensuring the safety of students. The paper reported:
The culture of leniency allows children to engage in an endless loop of violations and second chances, creating a system where kids who commit the same offense for the 10th time may be treated like it’s the first
Indeed, in a review of Broward’s disciplinary policies, the Sun-Sentinel discovered students are often considered “first time offenders” even if they are not and the district’s claims of successfully reforming bad behavior are “exaggerated.” That exaggeration gives Broward schools a “PR benefit,” the newspaper reported, namely in allowing officials to claim safer schools with lower disciplinary rates and higher graduation rates.
Former teachers told the Sun-Sentinel that Broward School officials have cultivated an environment that allows misbehaving students to thrive. They explained they were often told to not report disruptive students to school administrators because doing so could “tarnish” the school’s image.
“It was so many things. I had three students bring knives to my classroom. One was out of the classroom for one day. Another had so many things on his record, he was gone for five days. None were expelled,” Mary Fitzgerald, who taught in the district for 37 years, said. “My principal basically would tell me it was his job to market the school. He was adamant about not looking bad.”
What about the PROMISE program?
Runcie revealed last week, after he had previously denied it, that February’s mass killer was placed in the PROMISE program, a program that allows students who commit misdemeanors to avoid jail by attending an alternative school where they are counseled.
Runcie told the Sun-Sentinel the program, which he implemented, has been highly successful, even seeing a 90 percent success rate. However, Runcie’s figure is highly distorted because the district does not consider students re-offenders as long as they do not commit the same offense in the same year. In addition, students are offered...
