Obama Could've Expelled Cruz But Let Kill Students. Re Skin Color?

[The Finger]

As Dems turn to children for policy advice, meantime....
 
 Parkland shooter always in trouble, never expelled. School system could have done more, but chose to let Cruz slaughter 17 students.

 

At times, Nikolas Cruz’s behavior could be a school administrator’s nightmare: Teachers and other students said he kicked doors, cursed at teachers, fought with and threatened classmates and brought a backpack with bullets to school. He collected a string of discipline for profanity, disobedience, insubordination, and disruption.

 

In 2014, administrators [Obama] transferred Cruz to an alternative school for children with emotional and behavioral disabilities — only to change course two years later and return him to a traditional neighborhood school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Cruz was banished from Douglas a year later for other disciplinary violations — then toggled between three other alternative placements, school records obtained by the Miami Herald show.

 

Survivors of the Florida school shooting and hundreds of others descended upon the state capitol Wednesday to demand action on gun control and mental health issues. The rally comes exactly a week after 17 students were killed when a former student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Emily Michot The Miami Herald

If the frequent transfers — records show there were six in three years — did little to stanch Cruz’s disruptive behavior, they eventually became the only option left in the school district’s toolbox. Contrary to early reports, Cruz was never expelled from Broward schools. Legally, he couldn’t be. Under federal law, Nikolas Cruz had a right to a “free and appropriate” education at a public school near him. His classmates had a right to an education free of fear.

 

Their rights often collided.

 

Long before Cruz carried an AR-15 assault rifle into Stoneman Douglas and carried out one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history, the awkward, socially isolated youth puzzled, disrupted and sometimes terrified his schoolmates. Expelling Cruz from the Broward school system altogether was never an option, and what little is known of the teen’s educational history illustrates the sharp limitations that confront school administrators who must deal with profoundly troubled students.

 
 “You can’t just kick kids out of the public schools because you are afraid of them, or because they are hard to educate,” said Stephanie Langer, a Miami special education lawyer and advocate. “It has to be a balance, and I think it’s a really hard one.”

 

Since the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the first law that articulated a federal role in enforcing the rights of disabled people, the laws surrounding the education of children with special needs have evolved. In general, school districts are required to provide kids with physical, emotional or intellectual disabilities a free education in the “least restrictive” setting, and to accommodate the needs of such students.

Defining the word “accommodate” has kept judges busy for decades.

 

The tension between schools and parents has created a cottage industry for lawyers and advocates. For the budget year 2017, the state Division of Administrative Hearings docketed 244 appeals of Florida school board decisions, with the largest number of them being filed in South Florida. The Broward County School Board defended 38 appeals, the most in the state, followed by Miami-Dade with 37, DOAH reported last month. 

 

Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie wouldn’t discuss Cruz’s school records, citing a federal law that protects student privacy, but said he didn’t think providing Cruz with more school services would have prevented the shooting.

 

“Based on what’s reported in the media, here’s a kid who’s lost both parents, he’s obviously got some mental health challenges,” Runcie said. “Let me just say if we provided every service that we could and did all that in exemplary fashion, if he can still get access to guns what’s the point of all this?”

 

“This is a systemic problem we have that isn’t about blaming one agency or the other,” he added. “What we need to do is move from trying to play the blame game and find real solutions.”

 

Absent Cruz’s school records, it is hard to say precisely when Cruz’s behavior became an acute problem for teachers and administrators. Disciplinary reports obtained by the Herald show that at Westglades Middle School, which he attended in 2013, he’d been cited numerous times for disrupting class, unruly behavior, insulting or profane language, profanity toward staff, disobedience and other rules violations.

 

Records show the behaviors continued at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, which he attended in 2016 and 2017 before being transferred, with discipline being dispensed for fighting, profanity, and an “assault.” It appears the Jan. 19, 2017 assault resulted in a referral for a “threat assessment.” A few months later, Cruz landed at an Off Campus Learning Center, where he remained for only about five months. 

 

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article201216104.html

[commando]

oh look.....time to blame obama       much like the nazis always had their scapegoat jews to blame for all their problems these new "conservatives" always have someone to deflect to.   

[knapplc]

This is why you should have to have a minimum of 100 posts before you can start a topic on this site.

 

[Fru]

I feel like this quote is kind of important.

 

“Based on what’s reported in the media, here’s a kid who’s lost both parents, he’s obviously got some mental health challenges,” Runcie said. “Let me just say if we provided every service that we could and did all that in exemplary fashion, if he can still get access to guns what’s the point of all this?”

[The Finger]

Feel free to reply to the facts, knapplc. Below includes Obama's ACTUAL LAW in the pdf form. I'd try and derail too. I understand.

 

 Broward County ‘Inspiration’ for Obama School Discipline Policy to Report Fewer Arrests Suspensions 

 

The Broward County school district’s adoption of a school discipline policy that was praised by the Obama administration for seeking to reduce the reported number of school suspensions, expulsions, and arrests may have played a role in the fact that Nikolas Cruz remained under the radar until his shooting rampage in Parkland, Florida, on February 14.

“The facts pattern that has emerged strongly suggests it played a role,” Manhattan Institute senior fellow Max Eden tells Breitbart News. “It’s not actually accurate to say that what

 

Broward County did was the result of the Obama policy. It might be more accurate to say that what Broward County did was in some way the inspiration for Obama’s policy.”

The Obama-era Departments of Education and Justice – under education secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder –issued school guidelines in 2014 that claimed students of color are “disproportionately impacted” by suspensions and expulsions, a situation they said leads to a “school-to-prison pipeline” that discriminates against minority and low-income students.

 

“Broward County was the first to have the goal of lowering suspensions, lowering expulsions, lowering arrests,” explains Eden. “And, so, they decided to reduce police involvement by not bringing in cops to arrest kids for a whole range of serious offenses, and then, as you would expect, the arrests go down when you stop arresting. That was taken to be a sign of success, based on that metric alone.”

 

Eden explained at National Review in November how the Obama-era school discipline policy “extended Black Lives Matter’s ideology down into America’s classrooms”:

 

 Social-justice activists assumed that just as racial disparities in the criminal-justice system must be evidence that cops are (at least implicitly) racist, so too racial disparities in school suspensions must be evidence that teachers are (at least implicitly) racist. Therefore, teachers — like cops — have to be restrained. 

 

 Several years before the Obama school discipline policy appeared, however, the Broward County school board hired as superintendent Robert Runcie – who had worked for Duncan in Chicago – and also joined with the NAACP, law enforcement, and government agencies to adopt the district’s Collaborative Agreement on School Discipline, dubbed PROMISE (Preventing Recidivism through Opportunities, Mentoring, Interventions, Support, and Education).

 

As M. Catharine Evans reports at American Thinker, in academic year 2011-2012, just prior to the school board’s decision to hire Runcie, the Broward County public school district had 1,062 school-related arrests – the highest number in Florida.

 

Evans continues:

 

The Obama administration’s Department of Education was also involved in implementing PROMISE. Obama, who routinely dangled carrots in the form of matching federal grants to local districts for their participation in Common Core and Race to the Top, doled out millions to Broward.

With the promise of federal monies, it’s no surprise that Superintendent Runcie (annual salary: $335,000) was happy to oblige his friends in D.C. Within a year of Runcie’s arrival, student arrest rates were down 66 percent, and Broward County Schools were about to hit the federal jackpot. 

 

 One of the premises of the PROMISE program cited in the agreement and supported by data from the Obama Department of Education Office for Civil Rights reads:

 

WHEREAS, across the country, students of color, students with disabilities and LGBTQ students are disproportionately impacted by school-based arrests for the same behavior as their peers. 

[SNIP] "Page 3 – Dear Colleague Letter: Nondiscriminatory Administration of School Discipline 
who were involved in school-related arrests or referred to law enforcement are Hispanic or
African-American.

 

The Departments recognize that disparities in student discipline rates in a school or district may
be caused by a range of factors. However, research suggests that the substantial racial disparities
of the kind reflected in the CRDC data are not explained by more frequent or more serious
misbehavior by students of color.7
 
Although statistical and quantitative data would not end an inquiry under Title IV or Title VI,

significant and unexplained racial disparities in student
discipline give rise to concerns that schools may be engaging in racial discrimination that

violates the Federal civil rights laws. For instance, statistical evidence may indicate that groups
of students have been subjected to different treatment or that a school policy or practice may
have an adverse discriminatory impact. Indeed, t e De me s’ investigations, which consider
quantitative data as part of a wide array of evidence, have revealed racial discrimination in the
administration of student discipline. For example, in our investigations we have found cases
where African-American students were disciplined more harshly and more frequently because of
their race than similarly situated white students. In short, racial discrimination in school
discipline is a real problem.

 

The CRDC data also show that an increasing number of students are losing important
instructional time due to exclusionary discipline.8

 

The increasing use of disciplinary sanctions such as in-school and out-of-school suspensions,

expulsions, or referrals to law enforcement authorities creates the potential for significant,

negative educational and long-term outcomes,
and can contribute to "SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE". Studies have
suggested a correlation between exclusionary discipline policies and practices and an array of
serious educational, economic, and social problems, including school avoidance and diminished
educational engagement;9 decreased academic achievement;10 increased behavior problems;11....

 

https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201401-title-vi.pdf

Edited March 1, 2018 by The Finger

[Whistlebritches]

Nevermind.

Edited March 1, 2018 by Whistlebritches
This is dumb.

[The Finger]

8 minutes ago, Fru said:

I feel like this quote is kind of important.

 

“Based on what’s reported in the media, here’s a kid who’s lost both parents, he’s obviously got some mental health challenges,” Runcie said. “Let me just say if we provided every service that we could and did all that in exemplary fashion, if he can still get access to guns what’s the point of all this?”

 

The school could have acted, even though, and especially because, he had guns. Read the facts presented to find out why nothing as done. 

Edited March 1, 2018 by The Finger

[knapplc]

1 minute ago, The Finger said:

The Broward County school district’s adoption of a school discipline policy that was praised by the Obama administration for seeking to reduce the reported number of school suspensions, expulsions, and arrests may have played a role in the fact that Nikolas Cruz remained under the radar until his shooting rampage in Parkland, Florida, on February 14.

 

“The facts pattern that has emerged strongly suggests it played a role,” Manhattan Institute senior fellow Max Eden tells Breitbart News. “It’s not actually accurate to say that what Broward County did was the result of the Obama policy. It might be more accurate to say that what Broward County did was in some way the inspiration for Obama’s policy.”

 

The Obama-era Departments of Education and Justice – under education secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder –issued school guidelines in 2014 that claimed students of color are “disproportionately impacted” by suspensions and expulsions, a situation they said leads to a “school-to-prison pipeline” that discriminates against minority and low-income students.

 

Why isn't the Brietbart article this is taken from cited in the post?  That's a violation of board rules.

 

Quote

 

The Broward County school district’s adoption of a school discipline policy that was praised by the Obama administration for seeking to reduce the reported number of school suspensions, expulsions, and arrests may have played a role in the fact that Nikolas Cruz remained under the radar until his shooting rampage in Parkland, Florida, on February 14.

 

“The facts pattern that has emerged strongly suggests it played a role,” Manhattan Institute senior fellow Max Eden tells Breitbart News. “It’s not actually accurate to say that what Broward County did was the result of the Obama policy. It might be more accurate to say that what Broward County did was in some way the inspiration for Obama’s policy.”

 

The Obama-era Departments of Education and Justice – under education secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder –issued school guidelines in 2014 that claimed students of color are “disproportionately impacted” by suspensions and expulsions, a situation they said leads to a “school-to-prison pipeline” that discriminates against minority and low-income students.

 

 

LINK

[Fru]

"We should regulate who can and can't go to a public school."

 

"Good call. Let's also regulate who can and can't get an AR-15."

[TGHusker]

This was a breakdown of epic proportions - by FBI, local law enforcement, school district, mental health authorities, people who might have had the opportunity to alert authorities, and our antiquated gun laws.  To link this epic failure on Obama or his policies is a big over reach of the facts.  Let's say all of what the OP stated was true, it does not account for the breakdown in response to this individual prior to the shooting -   Authorities always tell us after the fact all of the 'signs' that should alert the public to report an individual. The fact is this shooter exhibited all of the signs of a troubled individual and potential threat but the same authorities failed to act.  That goes well beyond any consequences of any policy - whether good or bad policy.    

[The Finger]

16 minutes ago, knapplc said:

 

Why isn't the Brietbart article this is taken from cited in the post?  That's a violation of board rules.

 

 

LINK

 

Because the very law itself IS right there in my post above. And here it is again for all to read - https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201401-title-vi.pdf

 

Are you claiming because Breitbart picked it up too, that the law Hussein imposed is not true? I'm noting here you're avoiding debating the facts contained in the Promise Program. I understand.

Edited March 1, 2018 by The Finger
"I'm noting here you're *avoiding*"

[knapplc]

7 minutes ago, The Finger said:

The school could have acted, even though, and especially because, he had guns. Read the facts presented to find out why nothing as done. 

 

What law allows schools to remove students who own guns? I'm genuinely curious, because about half the kids in Nebraska's rural schools are facing expulsion if this is an actual law.

[Danny Bateman]

So have you guys seen any good movies lately?

[The Finger]

3 minutes ago, knapplc said:

 

What law allows schools to remove students who own guns? I'm genuinely curious, because about half the kids in Nebraska's rural schools are facing expulsion if this is an actual law.

 

That's a joke, right? Did that half of kids threaten to kill like Cruz did? AND were they tossed in and out of schools in their district, like Cruz was? AND was the FBI called on these Nebraska kids, like it was on Cruz?

Edited March 1, 2018 by The Finger

[knapplc]

1 minute ago, The Finger said:

Because the very law itself IS right there in my post above. And here it is again for all to read - https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201401-title-vi.pdf

 

We're not talking about that law.  Keep up.  We're talking about the copyrighted words you took from Brietbart and posted here without citing your source.  These words, right here, which were in your post without a source link.

 

14 minutes ago, The Finger said:

The Broward County school district’s adoption of a school discipline policy that was praised by the Obama administration for seeking to reduce the reported number of school suspensions, expulsions, and arrests may have played a role in the fact that Nikolas Cruz remained under the radar until his shooting rampage in Parkland, Florida, on February 14.

“The facts pattern that has emerged strongly suggests it played a role,” Manhattan Institute senior fellow Max Eden tells Breitbart News. “It’s not actually accurate to say that what

 

Broward County did was the result of the Obama policy. It might be more accurate to say that what Broward County did was in some way the inspiration for Obama’s policy.”

The Obama-era Departments of Education and Justice – under education secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder –issued school guidelines in 2014 that claimed students of color are “disproportionately impacted” by suspensions and expulsions, a situation they said leads to a “school-to-prison pipeline” that discriminates against minority and low-income students.

 

“Broward County was the first to have the goal of lowering suspensions, lowering expulsions, lowering arrests,” explains Eden. “And, so, they decided to reduce police involvement by not bringing in cops to arrest kids for a whole range of serious offenses, and then, as you would expect, the arrests go down when you stop arresting. That was taken to be a sign of success, based on that metric alone.”

 

Are you denying you pasted this into your post?