A adopted by the Broward County, Fla., district to reduce student arrests by a former student there, a state commission said Tuesday.
But the program does need to be improved, the commission said.
The PROMISE discipline program, created in 2013, required schools to refer students to an alternative disciplinary program instead of law enforcement for a list of non-violent offenses. Gunman Nikolas Cruz, charged with killing 17 people and injuring 17 others in a February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, was for three days after he damaged a faucet in a school bathroom at Westglades Middle School, but it is not clear if he attended, the state commission learned.
Some critics of the PROMISE program had suggested that, had Cruz been arrested instead, the infraction would have showed up on his criminal record, eliminating his ability to purchase the AR-15 he used in the attack, the Sun Sentinel reports. Those criticisms added to an already heated national debate on school discipline, centered on Obama-era guidance designed to reduce high arrest and discipline rates for students of color. President Trump later assigned a school safety task force chaired by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos with determining whether that guidance should be rescinded.
But the Florida commission, which includes law enforcement officials from other counties and family members of some of the students killed in the Parkland attack, concluded the PROMISE referral was not connected to the gunman鈥檚 access to weapons. Even if Cruz had been arrested for that act of vandalism, he would have been a juvenile first-time offender, which would not have limited his later ability to buy guns, the commission concluded, . Cruz was repeatedly disciplined by the district throughout his time as a student there.
鈥淭he referral of Cruz to the PROMISE program is inconsequential, as far as this commission is concerned because the evidence is the PROMISE program had no bearing on the outcome, no bearing on Cruz鈥檚 ability to buy, possess firearms,鈥� Chairman Bob Gualtieri, the sheriff of Pinellas County, told the Sun Sentinel. 鈥淚t had no bearing on what he did on Feb. 14, 2018. So it is immaterial. There鈥檚 a lot of room for discussion on the PROMISE program and pre-arrest diversion programs in general, but it has no bearing on the outcome here.鈥�
The commission, formed as part of a after the shooting, plans to present recommendations to the state about school-based diversion programs, the Sun Sentinel reports. Among those recommendations: Consistent criteria for diversion programs among Florida鈥檚 counties, and requiring discipline records to carry over year-after-year so that students don鈥檛 start over with a 鈥渇irst offense鈥� at the beginning of every school year.
The commission plans several days of meetings this week, including a closed-door hearing to learn about the gunman鈥檚 mental health history.
Also Tuesday, the commission learned the shooter鈥檚 mother, who is now deceased, over the objections of school counselors who鈥檇 warned her about his behavioral problems.