– Law Enforcement Failures, Corruption to Blame for School Shooting, Not Guns:
Yet another government agency is mired in “misconduct,” and this time the deaths of 17 students and teachers is drawing more attention to the criminal behavior. Could potential lawsuits filed by an angry, grieving school community be the tipping point to clean up an apparently dirty sheriff’s department?
By Sophia Myer
Lawsuits could be filed against Florida’s Broward County Sheriff’s Department (BSO) and Sheriff Scott Israel (D) if extensive research reported by a blogger called Sundance at “The Conservative Treehouse” website proves accurate. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, site of the Feb. 14 shooting by 19-year-old expelled student Nikolas Cruz that left 17 people dead, is in South Florida’s Broward County.
In the wake of this latest schoolyard massacre, the media has revealed the sheriff’s department had been contacted between 23 and 39 times over the course of about 10 years by Cruz’s family and others concerned about his violent outbursts and actions, mental health struggles, and wellbeing. The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) had conducted what it calls an investigation at one point, but it closed the case without referring the boy for case management services. The nonprofit mental health agency tasked with assessing Cruz on two occasions, Henderson Behavioral Health, failed to recommend holding him for assessment under the Baker Act, Florida’s law that allows temporary detention in a mental health facility for the purposes of psychological evaluation, despite school counselors’ concerns.
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