Runcie outlines security proposal

Assailant training for students and staff, a new approach to student discipline and mandatory identification badges for everyone are among next year’s changes aimed at improving Broward County schools’ security, the schools superintendent wrote to parents Saturday.

Superintendent Robert Runcie sent out an email to all parents and guardians Saturday about school security improvement efforts made in the wake of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that left 17 dead.

“As we approach the end of what has been a heartbreaking school year, we remain focused on building strength as a community and finding ways to heal together,” he wrote.

But reviews from members of the Parkland community on the plans were mixed. Some said the school district has not been moving fast or far enough and another noted that the problems

caused by automatically locking doors during the shooting weren’t addressed in the letter.

Manuel Oliver, father of Joaquin “Guac” Oliver, who would have graduated Sunday had he not been killed Feb. 14, said although the letter seemed to show the School Board is “finally” using common sense in security matters, he vowed to stay involved.

“Our No. 1 priority as a family is to make sure that no other family has to experience this pain,” Oliver said. “We don’t think the plan goes far enough. We hope to work with the School Board to continue to make schools safer.”

Casey Becher, whose 15-year-old twins will be sophomores at Stoneman Douglas when school starts in the fall, said she was surprised that the plan calls for “locking classroom doors at all times.”

“[Geography teacher] Scott Beigel was trying to unlock the door to let people back in his room when he got shot,” Becher said.

She heard that another student was trying to get past a locked bathroom door when he was shot.

“A lot of things they are proposing wouldn’t have changed much,” she said. “They don’t address anything at all about how these kids were trapped.”

Runcie was not available to answer further questions about the letter on Saturday.

The school district has hired an independent

“We don’t think the plan goes far enough. We hope to work with the School Board to continue to make schools safer.”

Manuel Oliver, father of victim

security firm, which will be making recommendations for security enhancements. Among the changes expected:

■ “Enhanced active assailant training developed by a multi-agency work group” will be part of the curriculum for everyone on campus next year, the letter says.

■ All discipline incidents will be “properly reported,” the letter said. Reports in the wake of the shooting suggest that the shooter was given the benefit of the doubt after a number of incidents, before he was finally expelled from Stoneman Douglas.

■ Mental health services will be expanded, the letter says.

Rachel Cunningham, the mother of two children, ages 8 and 3, said she hopes that the changes are implemented without delay.

“The community has had to consistently pressure the district to move things along at a much swifter and more reasonable pace,” she said.