School safety forum canceled

District said complaints called event partisan

The Palm Beach County School District has abruptly canceled a Monday night school safety forum after receiving complaints that it appeared to be related to gun-control events organized by Parkland students.

The “Town Hall for Our Lives,” scheduled at Olympic Heights High in west Boca Raton, was approved by the school district in early April, said State Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, one of the organizers.

The event had the same name as a series of town halls held in April that focused on lobbying Congress to pass tougher gun laws. Those events were organ-

ized by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, where 17 were killed in a Feb. 14 mass shooting, and by a national liberal group called the Town Hall Project. The events were promoted as a follow-up to the March for Our Lives events held March 24 in Washington, D.C., and around the country.

In South Florida, the April Town Hall for Our Lives events included participation from U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Frederica Wilson, all Democrats.

The Olympic Heights event had no direct affiliation with town halls or with March for Our Lives, said Barbara Finizio of Boca Raton, who was organizing it with Sachs. She and Sachs worked on the March for Our Lives rally in Boca Raton in March and sought guidance from the national group on how to set up a town hall, but received no funding or resources.

“I feel that their concern of possible political fallout associated with this meeting trumped the safety and well-being of our kids,” Finizio said. “Keeping our kids alive should never be a political issue.”

The topics for the forum were to be securing schools and mental health issues. Speakers were to include Superintendent Donald Fennoy, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, Palm Beach County Mayor Melissa McKinlay and School Board Member Frank Barbieri.

But after the district publicized the event, they received complaints that forums elsewhere in the country with the same name were focused on gun control and connected to the Democratic Party, district spokeswoman Amity Schuyler said.

The school district has a policy banning the use of schools for “the expression of controversial subjects which are inconsistent with the educational mission and vision of the School Board and the community values or which could be perceived as bearing the imprimatur or endorsement of the School Board.”

One parent sent the district a link to a photo from a Town Hall for Our Lives event in April that included photos of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio defaced with markers, Schuyler said. She said those town halls appear to have to have been organized by people associated with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

“These details created a perception of partisanship surrounding the Monday event that we did not think we could realistically overcome to be able to proceed in good faith and in partnership with Sen. Sachs at a school facility,” Schuyler said.

Finizio said she and Sachs had agreed to change the name of the event and have questions submitted in advance. They were told Thursday the event was still on.

But on Friday, Deputy Superintendent Keith Oswald said in an email to Sachs that “the political tension around this topic is palpable” and that they would address school-safety issues at regularly scheduled events at schools.

”We cannot risk losing hard-earned trust and credibility with our parents by hosting what many are perceiving to be a partisan event,” he wrote.