Educator ‘will get through this easily’
School leader directing traffic is run over by SUV
The assistant principal who was hit by an SUV outside J.P. Taravella High School Wednesday will recover quickly, according to family and friends.
Shawn Cerra, head of athletics for the Broward School District, said of Lisa Pannazzo: “If someone’s going to get back to being 100 percent, it’s going to be her.”
And nephew Vinny Pannazzo said: “She will get through this very easily.”
The crash happened in front of the school at 10600 Riverside Drive shortly after 7:30 a.m.
It was the third day of school and Pannazzo, 57, was directing traffic to help parents and others who were dropping students off at the start of the school day, police said.
The driver of the Infiniti SUV that hit Pannazzo, Marcelina Richter, 43, of Coral Springs, said she confused the gas and brake pedals when she noticed Pannazzo in the road and hit her.
Richter will not be cited for the crash,
police said. Richter was driving south on Northwest 107th Avenue. She stopped at a stop sign at Riverside Drive after dropping her daughter off at the school, according to the crash report.
She told police she looked left, then right and started to turn. She looked both ways again but as she moved forward, she saw Pannazzo and was unable to stop in time, she told police.
“She was confused between her pedals, and while trying to apply her brake, [Pannazzo] rolled up on her hood, then back down and forward onto the ground as [the SUV] rolled over her and stopped on top of her,” Coral Springs Police Officer Eric Schuster wrote in the crash report.
Coral Springs firefighters freed Pannazzo and she was taken by helicopter to North Broward Medical Center with injuries described as not life threatening.
Though police indicated Richter, whose SUV was traveling an estimated 8 mph, failed to see Pannazzo, investigators also noted that Pannazzo was in the road without wearing high visibility gear and that there was an “extreme amount of vehicular and pedestrian traffic” in the area.
Vinny Pannazzo, 25, of Connecticut, said he and his family are thankful Pannazzo’s injuries aren’t internal.
He said his aunt and godmother has spent about 30 years as an assistant principal in schools in Florida.
“She always said the kids at the school were like her kids because she never had any,” Vinny Pannazzo said.
He said the rest of his family is in Connecticut but they’re all preparing to come to Florida to visit Lisa Pannazzo.
“She’s a great person,” Vinny Pannazzo said.
Cerra, who worked with Pannazzo when he was principal at Taravella, said: “She’s one of the hardest working [assistant principals] that I know. She’s constantly on the go, from the minute she gets on campus until she leaves.”
Pannazzo has worked in Broward since 1988. She started as an exceptional student education specialist at Miramar High and took assistant principal roles at McArthur and Coral Glades high schools before moving to Taravella in 2013.
Lisa Maxwell, executive director of the Broward Principals’ and Assistants’ Association, said there is no standard school protocol for administrators who are assisting with carpool lines; procedures vary by school, depending on factors such as their layouts and their proximity to major roads, she said.
Maxwell said drivers need to be better educated in how to drive in school crossing zones.
The assistant principal “put herself in harm’s way,” Maxwell said. “The sole purpose for her being there was to ensure the safety of children crossing the street. There is no amount of training for stupidity, for people who are clueless and reckless in their driving habits.”
Maxwell said the association has reached out to Pannazzo, including spending time with her in the hospital and informing her about her health benefits.
Tracy Clark, chief public information officer for Broward County Public Schools, issued a statement saying the district’s thoughts and prayers are with Pannazzo.
“District and school staff are focused on ensuring the employee and employee’s family have the support they need during this difficult time and throughout the recovery process,” the statement read.
Counselors are being made available to help staff and students at the school.