Aug. 29 (UPI) -- The mother of a student killed in the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school was elected to her county school board.
Lori Alhadeff, a former teacher, won 65 percent of the votes Tuesday against two other candidates to represent District 4 on the Broward County School Board, according to local TV station WPLG.
Her daughter, Alyssa, was among 17 people killed when a gunman opened fire at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in February. Many candidates in the nine-seat board's five elections on Tuesday argued that the shootings were preventable, and that school officials neglected warning signs regarding gunman Nikolas Cruz.
"I am so excited to have won and to be the next school board member and to be able to make sure what happened to my daughter doesn't [happen to] any other children, and that we make our school safe," Alhadeff said.
Ryan Petty, whose daughter, Alaina, was killed in the shooting, likely lost the election for a county-wide, at-large seat on the board. Petty ran against incumbent Donna Korn, who secured a bit more than 50 percent of votes as of Tuesday night to avoid a general election. A former teacher at the school, Richard Mendelson, lost to incumbent Lori Rich Levinson in District 6.
Alhadeff and Petty ran on a platform of "more leadership, more transparency and more accountability to the Broward County school system," the Miami Herald reported.
