Students walk past the freshman building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., two weeks after a school shooting the building. On Monday, Broward Public School reassigned four staff members from the school. Photo by Gary Rothstein/UPI |
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Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Broward County Public Schools reassigned four staffers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after a security review revealed communication failures and untimely responses during a fatal shooting in February that killed 17 people and injured 17 others.
On Monday, the school district announced in a news release that Assistant Principals Jeff Morford, Winfred Porter Jr. and Denise Reed, and security specialist Kelvin Greenleaf were being reassigned to other district "administrative locations" from the school in Parkland.
The school district made its decision after a presentation by investigators from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission of the shooting on Valentine's Day.
"BCPS is examining material received from the commission to review the response by staff to the tragedy and preceding events," the district said in a news release. "Evaluation will also be used to improve school safety and services to students."
The district anticipates receiving additional information from the commission this week, including interviews with district staff.
The interim report is expected in January.
On Nov. 15, commission members watched a video animation with moving colored dots of responses of school police, campus monitors and the shooter, Nikolas Cruz.
The second-by-second breakdown shows miscommunication among the administrators regarding surveillance video playback of Cruz's shooting attack through the freshman building.
According to the evidence, Greenleaf and Morford entered the camera room approximately 7 minutes and 15 seconds after the first shot was fired.
Greenleaf and Morford told Porter, who was in charge of security, and former school resource officer Scot Peterson, who later resigned, what they saw on the video feed, but said there was a 20-minute delay in the 30-minute feed.
But police weren't informed the video was a delay so they searched for Cruz on campus even though he already fled.
During the presentation, Reed was not mentioned.
Lisa Maxwell, executive director of the Broward Principals' and Assistants' Association, disagrees with the decision.
"This is a massive betrayal of confidence, of trust. These people did nothing wrong. There is no evidence that they did, that they violated any policy," she said to the Miami Herald. "The evidence actually shows that they put their own lives at risk that day, and that they saved kids. This is beyond despicable."
The school district previously fired two school security monitors, Andrew Medina and David Taylor. Medina saw Cruz carrying a rifle bag before the shooting but did not stop him and Taylor hid in a closet after Cruz opened fire.
Superintendent Robert Runcie called victims' families Monday afternoon to inform them of the changes at the shcool.
"It appears that he [Runcie] has at least started the process of holding people to account," said
commission member Ryan Petty, whose daughter Alaina. "The failure to follow school board policy and the inaction [by staff] that day cost several lives."
