Calls for his removal

Candidates for a busy School Board race following the Parkland shooting used Runcie as a referendum: They either publicly said they were standing with him or said they would call for his ouster if elected.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel outlined the failures and missteps by the school district. It revealed the culture of tolerance that allowed unruly students to have repeated second chances. It exposed how Broward and school districts across the state under-report crimes, making their campuses appear safer than they are.

And the Sun Sentinel reported how the district failed to act on warning signs involving the Parkland killer, botched his special education services, failed to hold administrators accountable for actions related to the tragedy and has regularly hidden information from the public.

School board member Lori Alhadeff, who lost her daughter in the massacre, had called for Runcie’s ouster, saying he acted with “willful neglect.”

A School Board meeting a year after Parkland lasted seven hours. Ninety people spoke, all but a handful with glowing praise. Just two of the eight other School Board members sided with Alhadeff. It was a 6-3 vote to keep Runcie.

While many Parkland parents blamed Runcie for the district’s failures, other parents contended their grieving counterparts were looking for someone, anyone, to blame.

After the meeting, Runcie said it was an opportunity for a fresh start. He said he was grateful to be able to stay because he wanted to continue to create opportunities for schoolchildren. He offered that it was possible in the wake of such horrific loss, that the Broward school community could unite and set an example for the country and children.

“I really believe if we could come together in a united way, we could do so much more and move beyond the grief that we have.

“There’s always going to be pain. There is always going to be loss there but we need to figure out how to use that to create a legacy to honor the lives we lost.”