‘Crazies’ comment draws apology
In video, school shooting PR consultant had dismissed critics, insulted reporter
A crisis public relations consultant created a crisis of her own for the Broward school district after a video came to light in which she dismissed the district’s critics in the Parkland massacre as “crazies” and called a reporter a “skanky” “jerk” who “smells bad.”
Sara Brady, who was paid nearly $75,000 to assist the district after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, told an audience of public relations professionals last July that critics of the school district’s controversial Promise program, which allowed students who commit minor crimes to avoid jail, were “crazies.”
She criticized South Florida Sun Sentinel reporter Scott Travis, although she didn’t name him, as “just a jerk,” and then she got more personal.
“He is sloppy, he’s reckless, he’s mean, and he smells bad,” she said, laughing along with the audience.
At the point, Broward school district spokeswoman Tracy Clark can be heard calling out, “Sour milk!” That provoked more laughter.
At another point in the video Brady describes him as “that nasty, skanky reporter.”
Her statement about “crazies” concerned what happened after a state commission concluded that the Promise program had not been a factor in the shooting. The district put out a tweet about that conclusion, prompting criticism from the district’s detractors.
“And sure enough, all the crazies kind of came out,” Brady told an audience in California, in a video revealed by the South Florida Sun Sentinel in a recent story about the school district’s public relations damage control after the shooting. “The district knows who the crazies are and who the opposition is, and so certainly they seized on it and started putting stuff out there.”
The Promise program had been seized upon nationwide by conservative critics who were happy to lay part of the blame for the shooting on a program supported by President Barack Obama. But the program had also been criticized by many family members of the victims in the massacre.
“Our leaders don’t care about Parkland families!” Hunter Pollack, whose sister Meadow was killed in the attack, said in a Twitter post that went viral. “Broward’s Superintendent and his PR person called grieving fam-
ilies “crazies,” “the opposition,” and call hardworking reporters “skanks” for exposing the truth. Retweet and expose them all!”
Brady, of Winter Park in suburban Orlando, apologized, saying her comments had not been aimed at the bereaved families.
“Mr. Pollack … my remarks were intended to poke at the media in general,” she wrote in response. “I offer my profound apology for my lapse in judgment and display of disrespect.”
On her own Twitter page, she said, “My comments about ‘crazies’ were part of an overall presentation for communication practitioners and were in reference to the anonymous trolls and bots who seemingly always appear after these hideous tragedies.”
In an interview, she said she was not dismissing all critics of the district as “crazies,” just the more extreme, troll-like commenters on social media who sought to find fault with every statement or action.
She acknowledged her insults to the reporter as a “poor choice of words” in a conference intended to help school communication professionals know what to do when confronted by a crisis and a media storm.
“I probably went a little overboard in my comments about the reporter,” said Brady, a former police reporter at the Orlando Sentinel. “It’s just kind of shop talk. I acknowledge that.”
But her biggest regret, she said, is that families of victims may have thought she was talking about them, when she was not.
“My bigger concern is that anyone who lost a loved one thinks I was referring to them,” she said. “And I was not, in any way, shape or form.”
Broward school superintendent Robert Runcie, who watched the video the previous night, called on Travis to apologize, saying the comments were “inexcusable and don’t reflect the values of the district.”
Although he said he knows he’s had a tense relationship at times with the Sun Sentinel, Brady shouldn’t have used that kind of language or engaged in personal attacks. He said the district had canceled her contract before this came up.
“We may have had our differences, but never have I been in a situation where that kind of language was used,” he said in an interview. “It’s hurtful. It’s wrong. And it doesn’t represent my views or the views of the leadership of the school district.”
There are social media trolls spreading false information and sending abusive, threatening and racists messages to him and his family members, and that’s who
Brady was apparently speaking of, he said. But he said that’s not the fault of the victims’ families, and no one in the district speaks critically of the families.
“We try to do our best to support the families,” he said. “They’ve lost a child and can’t get them back. I feel for the parents and families every day.”
Regarding Brady, he said, “She doesn’t work for us anymore, nor will that person ever be working for us again.”
School board member Robin Bartleman forwarded a link of the video to Runcie, saying it reflected poorly on the district. Using the term “crazies” to describe the district’s critics was unfair, she said.
“FYI, many of those people asking questions were the victims’ families,” she wrote.
“She also speaks derogatorily about the Sun Sentinel and Scott Travis,” she wrote. “Criticizing the media and his questions are fair game; however, she certainly did not model our character traits and went way overboard including telling the audience how he smells terrible and Tracy Clark shouts out from the audience “like sour milk.”
Clark, asked for a comment, said in an email, “I was out of line.”
Broward County Commissioner Michael Udine, who represents Parkland, said the school district might have been better served by a different public relations firm.
“First rule of crisis PR. Dont let your crisis PR person cause you additional crisis PR,” he wrote on Twitter. “So sad. This is so wrong on so many levels. We have local PR people with love and compassion that would have served all of us with more dignity and professionalism!”