Redacted Educational Records Of Confessed Parkland Shooter Released
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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - A Broward judge ordered the release Friday of a long-awaited report paid for by the Broward County School District that investigated the services the district provided to confessed school shooter Nikolas Cruz during his time in the Broward County Public Schools. Dozens of pages of the 70-page report are redacted, especially when it comes to the specific, personal information about Cruz's educational and behavioral experience over his 16 years in Broward County schools.
The report says that "…the district adhered to procedural and substantive requirements when implementing this student's exceptional education program."
However, the report indicates that there were a couple of instances where District employees did not follow the rules regarding Cruz. One instance "…involved the district's response when the student requested reinstatement of ESE services after having revoked consent several months earlier."
The report recommends that Broward County Schools review and revise its policies on students re-entering ESE (exceptional student education) programs, especially when there is evidence indicating a student needs special education services.
In court Friday, an attorney for Cruz told a judge that he felt the report was self-serving for the District and that it should not be released.
"It's a whitewash and it's a disservice to the public to be able to put it out there and it's intended only to absolve the school board of its responsibilities," said David Frankel.
But Judge Elizabeth Scherer said that with all the redactions there didn't appear to be a good reason to prevent the release of the document.
"There's nothing in the report that would pose a threat to the administration of justice or the defendant's right to a fair trial," Scherer said.
The report says evaluators interviewed Cruz's teachers from 2013 to 2018, interviewed a number of district staff, poured over school documents — including informational material from the PROMISE program and looked at notes to school staff and questionnaires filled out by Cruz's late mother.
Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie released a statement Friday saying he is pleased with the review and the District is trying to implement the recommendations in a timely way.
CBS 4 News reached out to several parents of Parkland victims. Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, told me he's frustrated that it took so long to get this information and he said he plans to keep digging to try and make all of this information public.
Cruz, 19, faces the death penalty if convicted of 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. His attorneys have said he will plead guilty if guaranteed a life prison sentence, but prosecutors have rejected that offer.T
Victims' family members plan to sue the school board, accusing the district of failing to heed warning signs that showed Cruz might kill people at the school.
