Here are 7 key facts on shooter

Parkland report blacked out data

The truth about Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz was hidden under a cloak of black ink.

The heavily blacked-out report from an outside consultant might have led the public to believe that the Broward school district handled the troubled student almost perfectly. But lift the veil, and a different story appears.

The 70-page report, with the black removed, provides a detailed chronology of Cruz’s anguished journey through the school system, starting at age 3 and ending Feb. 14, the day he opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

The report itself spells out why the issue is important to the community:

“As everyone struggles to understand the reason for this devastating act, many members of the public have asked why, with his history of behavioral problems, this student was allowed to attend regular classes on a traditional school campus.”

Broward Circuit Judge Patti Englander Henning agreed to release the report with nearly two-thirds obscured, changes recommended by the school district to protect Cruz’s privacy rights. Cruz’s attorneys, too, fought the report’s release on the grounds that it could compromise his right to a fair trial. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer agreed to release the report anyway, with most of it blacked out.

Here’s what the court and school district thought the public was entitled to see — side by side with the full truth.

1. The blacked-out report concludes that the school district largely did nothing wrong.

Throughout this time period, available evidence indicates that, with isolated exceptions, the district adhered to procedural and substantive requirements when implementing this student’s exceptional education program. — Broward School District report

In contrast, the full report reveals that the “isolated exceptions” came during the shooter’s pivotal junior year, when he was a student at Stoneman Douglas High.

2. The blacked-out report obliquely alludes to two mistakes the district made. Regarding the first mistake, the censored report says only:

The first involved Florida’s requirement that informed consent be obtained from a parent (or adult student) prior to placement in center school. — Broward School District report

The uncensored report reveals the district’s missteps more completely. It explains that administrators misstated Cruz’s options when trying to remove him from Stoneman Douglas to return him to Cross Creek in Pompano Beach, a school for children with severe emotional and behavioral disorders. As a result, he rejected special education services during his junior year.

The school district has said repeatedly that because he rejected special education, Cruz could not get help for his social, emotional, behavioral and academic troubles. Had his options been stated correctly, he could have remained in special education at Douglas until the district took the matter to an independent hearing, the full report says.

All of those details are concealed in the version released to the public.

3. The blacked-out report hints in obscure language that school employees nudged Cruz to formally opt out of the special education program when he was a junior at Stoneman Douglas. But its recommendation does not directly make the point. It says the district should:

Review and revise current training and guidance regarding revocation of consent, with attention to less common situations such as when: … a parent or adult orally states their desire to revoke consent but does not submit the request in writing as required, so that staff remain neutral and are able to act without either promoting or hindering the revocation. — Broward School District report

That version does not tell the full story — that Cruz never followed through on his comments that he wanted to reject special education placement. So a school employee wrote his rejection letter for him and had him sign it. As soon as he signed, he was stripped of all special education services.

4. As for the second mistake, the only description in the blacked-out report fails to say what the district did wrong.

The second involved the district’s response when the student requested reinstatement of ESE services after having revoked consent several months earlier. — Broward School District report

The full report made it clear. It revealed for the first time that Cruz had asked to be reinstated in special education and sent to Cross Creek School. But district officials fumbled his request and he was left without services until the shooting. They should have responded to his request within 30 days, but they didn’t, the uncensored report says.

5. The blacked-out report doesn’t show what the district knew about the shooter’s history. In truth, the uncensored report reveals that the district knew he displayed profound emotional and behavioral troubles as early as age 3, continuing throughout his 16 years in the school system.

6. The blacked-out report contains no information about the district’s previous attempts to put Cruz in mainstream schools or the decision to send him to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. It conceals what the district knew all along — that Cruz was never able to sustain periods of acceptable behavior or succeed in a mainstream setting.

7. The blacked-out report hints — but does not say — that Cruz, a student with lifelong behavioral problems, was sent to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High without a behavior intervention plan, which would have helped educators know what behavior to expect and how to respond to it. According to the censored report, the district was advised to:

Establish a protocol for communicating with all relevant staff in a receiving school or program when a student with social/emotional or behavioral needs transitions from an ESE center school or ESE separate class setting in a traditional school building to a less restrictive general education setting. In addition to the annual goals and positive behavioral supports included within an IEP, a behavior intervention plan or similar document that more explicitly details the actions to be taken in response to student behavior and includes a formal system for monitoring and/or tracking student performance should be considered for transitioning students. — Broward School District report

The full report reveals much more. It explains Cross Creek’s decision to discontinue a behavior intervention plan for him. A new one was not created at Stoneman Douglas. Cruz’s subsequent behavioral problems ultimately led to his ouster from Stoneman Douglas.

bwallman@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4541 or Twitter @BrittanyWallman