good morning so great to have you with
us the focus is on fix it as we approach
the one-year mark this week the day a
mass murder at Marjory Stoneman Douglas
high changed so many lives in an instant
and revealed fatal flaws in school
security this week in Washington and
Tallahassee gun safety legislation has
been the focus of state and federal
lawmakers and as they have from the
beginning parkland parents are at the
forefront of the debate two of the
leading voices in the debate are with us
this morning
l'oreal high def is one of them her
daughter Alyssa 14 died in the mass
shooting one year ago her quest for a
change in at that chick quest for change
Messala death ran for and won a seat on
the Broward County School Board ryan
petty lost his daughter Elena that day
he was an advisor to state lawmakers who
passed landmark gun legislation last
session and a commissioner on the state
investigative panel examining what went
wrong and found so much and boy one year
it's gonna be a tough week for you
appreciate you being with us our hearts
are always with you and you know there's
a lot to talk about today changes and
why aren't changes Ryan what is set the
scene for us as we go into this week
what has changed really what are those
headlines you know in my view not enough
has changed there are too many of the
same challenges we faced on February
14th are we're still being we're still
facing those same challenges today in
our schools in in Broward County and
quite frankly schools across the state
but the focal point being here ground 0
Broward County challenges in security
security in the schools securing the
schools making it a priority getting the
right leadership to get the job done not
much has changed in a year well one
thing that has changed is that you ran
for and were elected to the Broward
County School Board so you are really
putting your your intelligence your
passion you know there and in the memory
of your lovely beautiful daughter who
died what have you been able to do on
the school board
I think I've been able to help keep
school safety as a top priority and I
bring every day to the school board a
sense of urgency that we need to make
sure that we take the Commission reports
and make sure we put them into action
and what hasn't happened from
superintendent Runcie or the
administration that you think what great
kind of oversight has not happened that
it needs to happen well there is a lot
of the failed leadership and everything
that failed leading up to February 14th
moving forward now there isn't that
sense of urgency to create school safety
to implement these changes in a sense of
urgency as quickly as possible
yeah well it's a big bureaucracy and it
moves slowly it's moved too slowly for
you and for Ryan Ryan I'm sure it has an
in fact this week you know a member of
the community gave me some documentation
about from a report back from 2013 a
school board agenda item in the wake of
the Sandy Hook tragedy this was a topic
for the Broward County School Board and
there was a move in the state
legislature to create a school safety
entity in Broward County to look after
this in the superintendent the school
board fought against that proposal and
promised to implement many of the
changes we discussed on the MSD
commission many of the recommendations
and they failed to act they had five
years to prepare and failed to do it you
know it's so interesting you bring that
up because last week on this program the
superintendent was with us we asked him
a lot of those questions and as a Lauri
as a school board member I really want
to get your take on this
what superintendent Runcie essentially
said he even threw a litany of things
that they're doing now post 2:14 sure
last year a 30 million dollar investment
in various things that are in the
reports but he said there are due
process rights as it as it applies to
people who did things wrong or who shook
their responsibilities and he as the
superintendent of this district which
you are now ahead of our bound by these
due process rights and if they don't
follow them there's a chance that those
people who go through what their right
is to go through
who won't be disciplined like they're
supposed to be so this you know it's
sort of like bureaucracy versus common
sense and so now that you are in that
how do you how do you turn the Titanic
you know 17 people were killed 17 people
were shot how could the head of security
still be the head of security how can
the principal of that school still be
the principal of that school okay so
that that's a question we all say yeah
but in practice how do you get that
changed he's the superintendent he can
fire someone if he thinks that's the
appropriate thing to do seven people
died and seventeen people were shot
there have been voices raised in the
community and including in fact by you
and others saying Robert Runcie is a
good man but he's not the man to lead
the district where we need to go you
don't believe mr. Runcie should be the
superintendent any longer I do not have
confidence him I do not think he's the
right person to continue lead Broward
County Public Schools we have a 800
million dollar smart bond program that
is failing and that is under his
leadership the needs assessment was not
done correctly we have school safety
back in 2013 that Ryan brought up that
these after Sandy Hook tragedy they
should have had these school safety
measures in place one of them was
training a school safety monitor if that
monitor was trained correctly on 214 our
children might still be alive today and
if and if he took the initiative to do
what he was supposed to do also right
and just add to that it's much easier to
hold people accountable when you have
clear and definitive policies which the
superintendent and 2013 promised to put
in place and failed to do that and as
we've learned the security monitor mr.
Medina didn't have any training didn't
know what he was supposed to do that is
one of the one of the items as Laurie
mentions he promised to do in 2013 yeah
well let's let's if we can excuse me
Clara let's go through a few things I
know Robert when I was out sick last
week but I was watching and I know some
things that mr. Runcie has said they
have done there is a school resource
officer obvious
at every school in Broward County single
points of entry monitored gates safe
corners have been designated Code Red
policies have been articulated you're
shaking no not all of those things have
been done and yet look the SROs that
that state law so to have to claim
success or to claim victory over
something that's a requirement a legal
requirement rings hollow to me
we don't have safe corners and safe
zones designated in all of our schools
they did some at MSD but they're not
everywhere so what about the kids in the
rest of the community don't they deserve
to know where to go in a time of
emergency can we uh I just want to turn
our attention to a statewide focus
because you you were on the MSD
Commission you had past you were part of
also the set of people who were
consulting with then Governor Rick Scott
and passed really unprecedented gun law
in Florida and then now with sessions
starting next month and bills starting
to be filed there are I counted at least
six I'm sure I missed some having to do
with school safety but one of them
actually undoes a lot of what you passed
including raising the age permit to buy
a gun the waiting periods and and I
thought most significantly the red flag
laws that really have been very
instrumental if you ask law enforcement
to be able to take guns away from people
who they deem mentally ill what's going
on there what do you see happening there
look there were factions within the
legislature folks that were unhappy with
what we did in 70 26 look the the
challenge the the reason we raised the
age from 18 to 21 to purchase a firearm
in the state of Florida is because there
is a there is not a a good transition
from mental health services that are
provided to our juveniles as they as
they mature and become of age and so
from 17 to 18 and we saw in this case in
particular Cruz rejected once he turned
18 he rejected the services he was
getting we had a gap that she legally
could really could and so don't so most
of the law correct and so at from 18 to
21 we have this gap that we we need to
address as
date and we didn't have the mechanism to
do that so the way the way to the way to
solve that was just to raise the age and
so mental health is a focus now it is
then in the governor's budget he put in
I want to say 10 million off the top my
head for mental health in schools I may
be off a couple of million but the
mental health component of those of
those bills were really a game changer
absolutely this has been a historically
for a number of reasons a an underfunded
area in the state of Florida it's
something we need to take seriously in
this particular case there were lots of
mental health services provided to the
shooter at MSD nevertheless it is an
area where we need to make some more
investment services seem to have been
inadequate in many instances we still
don't know about the behavioral health
company that allegedly provided the
services may I go rogue here for one
moment I'd like to take a quick break
and I'd like to continue this
conversation when we come right back
it's not what we had planned but going
roam work sometimes so state
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on the Sunday morning live in our city
Orion Petty and Lori alidev we are
talking about the one-year anniversary
of Marjory Stoneman Douglas the massacre
and what has happened since one of the
things that has happened Laurie is that
in your native state of New Jersey they
just passed the law signed it you were
there called Alyssa's law what does n 2
so the Elissa law will require every
school in New Jersey to have a panic
button a silent alarm
to get law enforcement on the scene as
quickly as possible well great and how
about getting that in Florida so I've
been working with senator Lauren book
and she filed for the Elissa what law a
few weeks ago to get the Elissa law here
in Florida so that is a bill in the
hopper Intelli hansi yeah I think that's
one of the six I read the you know what
strikes me sitting here listening is
that for the first time you know mass
shootings in schools get our attention
like nothing else does and then what but
for the first time there's so much
engagement and and as we come up on what
I can't believe is one year you know
parents the the young woman that we're
about to have with us all of the kids at
Marjory Stoneman Douglas the March for
life I mean look back over the year and
think what engagement that there has
been what is I know the school district
is with a consultant sort of looking at
what to do this week what do you expect
this week Ryan at the school and in
parkland and what is appropriate this
week yeah so the various groups have
reached out to the to the families to
try to be to try to plan activities that
are sensitive to to our feelings I think
you know for I won't speak for all of
the families I know the anniversary is
is it's going to be one of those those
tough days for a lot of families for I
know for me and my family it's just
another day that we don't have Elena
with us and so well it's it's a one year
my biggest fear is that that the rest of
the community moves on yeah you know the
one year anniversary becomes the day
that
we can say let's move on as a community
and think about and talk about other
things and I hope that doesn't happen
you and the 17 families and and really
35 families who were directly impacted
we've seen over the past year it's a gun
safety and gun control or it's a very
politically charged topic and you have
very different politics among this group
talk a little bit about the the
closeness and the cooperation that maybe
the rest of the country
can learn from what you all are doing
well as a group of families we founded
an organization called stand with
Parkland to represent all of us which to
your point is a tricky thing to do
because we all do have different
politics and different different
thoughts and ideas and in fact different
priorities and different ways to solve
this but our focus at stand with
Parkland has been around school security
mental health and what we call
responsible gun ownership so when you
look at the statistics of of these mass
shootings 66 percent of them are carried
out with a gun that's brought from home
well hmm that that's an area where we
could really make some difference if we
get parents and families to store
firearms safely they might keep them out
of the hands of the young people that
want to take them to school and do harm
I think that's part of that's a
suggestion it proposal that's in one of
those bills extending the red flag laws
to to enable family members to go
straight to court
that would help yeah if families are
aware one I think we all we've also
learned in the Commission is that there
are there's leakage these shooters tell
somebody either through social media or
or through conversations they tell
somebody their intentions and so we can
know beforehand and we can divert them
and do something different yeah and at
the school board level so it's going to
be a day of love and healing in a day of
service and I would just like to tell
parents to really watch their children
some kids are suffering in silence there
could be some kids that might want to
commit suicide so we need to really
reach out to our children and check
their mental health and get them the
help that they need
excellent advice and I'm sure we'll all
be thinking of you and all the parents
and the children and the victims at
Marjory Stoneman Douglas Lee bring you
all right thanks so much