FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Broward County School Board members became emotional as they discussed private “Safety Meetings” that Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie held with one of the newest school board members and parents of students attending Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
School board members met Tuesday afternoon to discuss these meetings that were held in private.
Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter, Alyssa Alhadeff, was a victim of the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas last year, would have had two of those meetings scheduled on a religious holiday and another on her birthday.
Alhadeff also wanted the meetings to be public with all board members present.
Some of the school board members felt that she wasn’t given the treatment she deserved as far as scheduling goes.
Broward School Board Member Robin Bartleman said, “To do a town hall meeting on her birthday, and then for you to say in the paper that you contacted her and arranged the dates with her? Are you kidding me?! And you want to know why she’s bringing board items? You wanna know why? That’s why she’s bringing board items! ‘Cause she’s treated like crap! Her needs and her wants aren’t being brought forward to the table.”
After a back and forth that lasted for a couple of hours, school board members decided that each representative from the district can hold safety meetings with the people in their towns of their districts as they wish.
“You didn’t have this outrage when the student was shot and killed at Dillard, ’cause y’all didn’t even close the school for one hour,” Broward School Board Member Dr. Rosalind Osgood said.
Runcie said he would schedule a public town hall sometime this month.
“The conversation around safety doesn’t end today,” Runcie said. “It doesn’t end on Feb, 14. It will always continue.”
Meanwhile the NAACP has warned Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that removing Runcie would be “highly political and racist.”
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter, Jamie Guttenberg, was also a victim of the MSD shooting, pleaded with the NAACP on Twitter to “not make this about race.”
The superintendent’s supporters attended the Tuesday meeting.
“He does not deserve that,” Runcie supporter Wayne Bart said. “We’re here to say today that Parkland parents do not speak for the whole of Broward County. There’s other people that live in Broward County besides the Parkland parents.”
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