Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
ON THE AIR:
Two Stoneman Douglas students appeared on Friday’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
The U.S. Department of Education is providing $1 million to the Broward County Public Schools to help cover educational expenses for schools that have had their learning environments disrupted by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.
The grant announcement was made Friday by the office of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.
He and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, a Democrat whose district includes the Parkland school, urged Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to expedite the review of the grant request for Broward.
In the Feb. 14 Stoneman Douglas shooting, 17 people were killed// and 16 others were injured.
“As the Broward County community and the rest of Florida continues to recover from the Parkland tragedy, we must ensure they receive the resources they need. I applaud
Secretary DeVos for approving this grant and urge the Administration to expeditiously review current and future requests related to this tragedy during this community’s difficult time,” Rubio said in a statement.
Earlier this week, Deutch, Nelson and Rubio also asked the Department of Justice to approve a $1 million grant to help cover the costs of personnel and overtime plus investigative, intelligence and supervision expenses.
In their letter to the Justice Department, the lawmakers said the shooting “put a strain on state and local law enforcement resources, and the agencies are unable to absorb the additional costs resulting from this traumatic event.”
“First responders spent many hours processing the crime scene, conducting investigations, tending to victims and monitoring the suspect while in custody. Because of this, state and local law enforcement incurred significant costs that they are unable to afford on their own,” Deutch, Nelson and Rubio wrote.