From article:
PUNTA GORDA, Fla.–Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended four Broward County School Board members on Aug. 26, following a grand jury recommendation citing “incompetence, neglect of duty, and misuse of authority.”
A Statewide Grand Jury released a 122-page report accusing the four of a range of “inexcusable actions… and unacceptable behavior” relating to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on Feb. 14, 2018, when 17 students and staff lost their lives.
The governor said he took the report’s recommendations and decided to act on his constitutional authority as governor.
“It is my duty to suspend people from office when there is clear evidence of incompetence, neglect of duty, misfeasance or malfeasance,” DeSantis said in a written statement. “We hope this suspension brings the Parkland community another step towards justice. This action is in the best interest of the residents and students of Broward County and all citizens of Florida.”
In announcing the suspensions, DeSantis said, “These are inexcusable actions by school board members who have shown a pattern of emboldening unacceptable behavior, including fraud and mismanagement, across the district.”
In 2019. the governor asked the Supreme Court to convene the grand jury to look into safety and security issues statewide in the aftermath of the Parkland tragedy.
The grand jury’s report, which was completed in April 2021, but was not released until Aug. 19, 2022, details accounts of mismanagement within Broward schools after the shooting.
Former Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie was indicted on perjury charges by the grand jury in April 2021. He stepped down in August 2021. Much of the report was highly critical of Runcie’s leadership, but the four now-suspended board members continued to support him.
Four teachers from Broward County, Florida died from COVID-19 on Tuesday and Wednesday.
One was a high school teacher while another taught elementary school. A teaching assistant and the fourth teacher were from the same school.
The deaths come even as Broward County's school board voted to defy a ban on mask mandates on school premises.
Three teachers and a teaching assistant from Broward County, Florida, have died from COVID-19 within a span of 24 hours, the Broward Teachers' Union told NBC Miami on Thursday.
In July, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order banning mask mandates for Florida public schools, despite rising cases among children in the state. Earlier this week, more than 800 Florida physicians signed an open letter to DeSantis urging him to revise his policy.
"This past week, COVID-19 has infected more than 19,000 Floridians every day, the worst weekly infection rate since the pandemic began, and hospitalized an average of 1,800 Floridians daily," the letter said. "In the last week of July, at least 35 children were hospitalized every day for COVID-19 in Florida, a number that is very likely an undercount since Gov. DeSantis stopped sharing COVID-19 statistics."
Rather than issue mask mandates, DeSantis has rolled out a program to provide Regeneron monoclonal antibodies through clinics - the same treatment former President Trump received when he tested positive for COVID.
