Runcie outlines next steps.
The Broward school district plans to conduct an independent review of what went wrong with the education plan for Nikolas Cruz and what steps should be taken to better serve students with behaviors that could be signs of danger.
Superintendent Robert Runcie said Tuesday that the district will pay Collaborative Educational Network, a Tallahassee consulting firm, $60,000 to conduct the review. He said it will be done “with both transparency and a sense of urgency.” It will begin immediately and be completed by June, he said.
The consultants will examine the academic, social and emotional services provided to Cruz during his time at school, Runcie said. Cruz, a former student of Stoneman Douglas, killed 17 people at the campus Feb. 14.
“We cannot undo the heartbreak this attack has caused in the community, but we can try to understand the conditions that led to such acts in hopes of avoiding them in the future,” Runcie said.
Runcie wouldn’t comment on any specific ways the district might have failed Cruz.
“The reason why we’re doing an independent, comprehensive assessment is I don’t want to sit here and speculate what may or may not have been done,” he said. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t even need to have a review.”
Runcie has said that when Cruz turned 18, he revoked his consent for the mental health and other services guaranteed to him under the Individuals with Disabilities Act. That prevented the district from placing him back in a school for students with emotional and behavioral disabilities, he said.
Cruz was initially allowed to stay at Stoneman Douglas but was later transferred to a credit recovery program that offered few, if any, mental health services.
That placement came under fire by some special education experts who say the district shirked its responsibility and should have looked for other ways to help him. They said that could include getting him psychiatric help under the Baker Act, offering regular access to counseling, allowing him to stay at Stoneman Douglas to try and improve his behavior, or persuading him to attend a school suited for him.
Some experts acknowledged it can be difficult to serve an adult student who doesn’t want help, but said the district likely failed to properly help Cruz when he was much younger and showing behavioral problems and expressing an interest in guns.
“This didn’t suddenly happen just because he reached a certain age,” said Pete Wright, a Virginia lawyer who specializes in federal law related to special education.“This type of thing shows itself for many, many years. The seeds are there, the signs are there in the second, third, fourth grade that he’s depressed or having aggressive behavior. Unless the pattern is reversed, there can be horrible complications in the future.”
Runcie said that while he was still waiting on information, he hasn’t seen any evidence that the district failed to contact law enforcement when it had information of possible criminal behavior involving Cruz.
The district hasn’t confirmed reports that Cruz brought knives and ammunition to school. Runcie said he doesn’t think the district was aware of an Instagram post where Cruz threatened to “shoot up” a school. The post was reported to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, and the deputy who responded is under investigation related to his handling of the tip.
Runcie said the district’s Promise program, which provides interventions that allow students to avoid getting arrested for certain misdemeanor offenses, was not a factor in what went wrong. He said Cruz was not a participant in the program.
Cruz’s Individual Education Plan was drafted by a team of specialists and approved by his mother, officials said. Although these plans may require lighter discipline than regular students for some infractions, school officials are expected to call police if students bring weapons to school, Runcie said.
He said the district has been criticized by some who feel the district’s zero tolerance for weapons policy is too extreme in the other direction. A student at Silver Trail Middle in Pembroke Pines was suspended for six days and referred to police in 2016 after she brought a butter knife to school to cut a peach, according to WPLG-Channel 10.
“The parents were adamant we had gone too far and appealed it to the School Board, but we stayed true to what we recommended. This was what the policy said,” Runcie said. “We take weapons infractions very seriously. There are no exceptions.”
stravis@sun-sentinel.com, 561-243-6637 or Twitter @smtravis.