For getting law enforcement to back off and handing law enforcement over to the school because of Obama’s policies, the school and law enforcement failed to keep the Parkland shooter Nickolas Cruz under control or at least off of the streets.
In 2013, the Broward County school board entered into an agreement with multiple law-enforcement agencies — including the Broward County sheriff — designed to limit the number of on-campus arrests.
Obama education secretary Arne Duncan even highlighted Broward County’s efforts to reduce out-of-school suspensions and try alternative forms of discipline. Broward County was reportedly “one of 53 major school districts” to adopt Obama-administration guidelines designed in part to limit law-enforcement involvement in school discipline.
Sperry quoted Peter Kirsanow, a conservative member of the Commission on Civil Rights:
Broward County adopted a lenient disciplinary policy similar to those adopted by many other districts under pressure from the Obama administration to reduce racial “disparities” in suspensions and expulsions. . . . In many of these districts, the drive to “get our numbers right” has produced disastrous results, with startling increases in both the number and severity of disciplinary offenses, including assaults and beatings of teachers and students.
lax discipline meant that the Parkland shooter not only had no criminal record when he purchased his rifle, he didn’t even have the arrest record that may well have spurred additional inquiry when people did report their concerns to the FBI. Recall, he was disciplined for fighting, for assault, and for bringing bullets to school.
The upshot was that the lack of an arrest record made it difficult for police to confirm that Cruz was a proven threat and to intervene when they received call-in tips and complaints from neighbors, classmates and relatives about his stockpiling of weapons and desire to kill people, law enforcement officials say.
It’s too much to pin the Parkland shooting entirely on school policies — after all, there were other opportunities for police to intervene more effectively — but this history does highlight that there are profound risks in leniency, especially when leniency is directed at violent students. It’s one thing to show a measure of grace to students who commit non-violent offenses, it’s another thing entirely to enable and excuse those who commit assault.
No, let’s not involve law enforcement too soon when no one is under threat. But the simple fact is that some kids shouldface arrest.
The school-to-prison pipeline is a problem. Sweeping it under the rug as was done at Parkland caused the death’s of too many innocents.
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