Late on Sunday night, local Florida media reported that the gunman who shot up Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February was assigned to a controversial Obama-era disciplinary program which the Broward County Public Schools superintendent previously denied existed on multiple occasions.
WLRN reports:
Two sources with knowledge of [the shooter]’s discipline records told WLRN he was referred to the so-called PROMISE Program for a three-day stint after committing vandalism at Westglades Middle School in 2013.
Superintendent Robert W. Runcie implemented the PROMISE Program in Broward County Public Schools in 2013 at the behest of the Obama administration’s efforts to reduce the number of minority students who ended up in prison from crimes that they committed on campus.
The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro analyzed a report from Real Clear Investigations and wrote that Broward County Public Schools “had rewritten its disciplinary policies to make it nearly impossible to suspend, expel, or arrest students for behavioral problems including criminal activity.”
School district spokesperson Tracy Clark told WLRN on Friday that administrators in the district were analyzing the shooter’s records and on Sunday they confirmed that he had been referred to PROMISE after he vandalized a bathroom at the middle school shortly after the program was put in place in 2013.
WLRN notes that it is not clear whether the shooter even attended the program:
Clark said he appeared at Pine Ridge Education Center in Fort Lauderdale — an alternative school facility where PROMISE is housed — for an intake interview the day after the vandalism incident.
Clark told WLRN: “It does not appear that [the shooter] completed the recommended three-day assignment/placement,” although she wouldn’t “speculate” on the reason why.
WLRN adds that the Broward County Sheriff’s Office previously said that the shooter never attended the program.
“The school board reports that there was no PROMISE program participation,” said BSO representative Jack Dale.
Those impacted by the Parkland shooting reacted to the news on social media by calling for Runcie’s removal: