Threats will not work, editor tells School Board

Articles on Parkland shooter based on info revealed in error by district

The South Florida Sun Sentinel did not violate a court order by releasing confidential information about Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz, attorneys for the news organization said in court papers filed Friday.

If Cruz’s privacy rights were violated, it was by the Broward County school district, which failed to properly shield the information contained in a report that was released last Friday, the newspaper argued.

The Broward School Board wants the Sun Sentinel and reporters Paula McMahon and Brittany Wallman held in contempt for reporting on the full contents of the report.

“The School Board’s attempts to threaten the Sun Sentinel and keep it from reporting on its missteps with the Parkland shooter will not work,” said Sun Sentinel Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. “We are committed to digging into all aspects of this tragedy and the issues it raises for our community. We believe that a well informed public will find solutions. That is

what drives our newsroom.”

The School Board commissioned the report in the wake of the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Cruz is charged with 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder, and the report was intended to examine his education record to determine what school officials could have and should have known ahead of time about the risk he posed.

Education records are shielded from release under Florida’s public records law, so when the school district posted the report on its website, close to two-thirds of it was blacked out in compliance with a civil court order.

McMahon and Wallman learned that the hidden information could be obtained by copying the report and pasting it into another file.

The information that was supposed to remain private included revelations that:

• School officials didn’t properly advise Cruz of his legal options when he was faced with removal from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School his junior year, leading him to give up special education services.

• When Cruz failed to file the required written rejection of special education services, school officials nudged him, writing it up for him to sign.

• The district “did not follow through” on Cruz’s subsequent request to return to the therapeutic environment of Cross Creek School for special education students.

In part because of the district’s mistakes, Cruz had no school counseling or other special education services in the 14 months leading up to the shooting.

“In a rush to deflect from its own negligence in publicly disclosing the … report at issue in a wholly unsecured format,” Sun Sentinel attorney Dana McElroy wrote, “the School Board now seeks to have this Court find the Sun Sentinel in contempt for exercising their First Amendment rights to truthfully report on a matter of the highest public concern.”

McElroy argued the journalists obtained the full report legally and were not restricted from reporting on its contents.

The school district sent an e-mail to the reporters and their editors Monday demanding the removal of articles and links to the information from SunSentinel.com and warning them not to publish further reporting on the contents.

The school district did not reply to a request for comment Friday afternoon.

Media attorney Tom Julin, who is not involved in the case but has represented the Miami Herald in court, said the school district is out of line.

“The judge’s ruling applied to the School Board,” he said. “The judge never ordered the Sun Sentinel not to release information provided by the School Board.”

McElroy’s response to the contempt motion asks the court to find the school district in violation of a state law that forbids public agencies from punishing people and organizations for exercising their First Amendment rights by filing motions that have no legal merit.