The Balancing Act

PJ Media reports this morning on what we are continuing to learn from the Parkland shooter, the aftermath of the tragedy, and how education policies shaped the environment that allowed such a thing to happen.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel has reported about a number of failures and missteps by the Broward School District. It has reported on a culture of tolerance that allows unruly students to have repeated second chances. [or third, fourth, fifth....] The district is now revising its discipline policies and the Promise program, which provides alternatives to arrests for some misdemeanor offenses, to make them less lenient.
The newspaper also identified how school districts in Broward and across the state under-report crimes, making their campuses appear safer than they are. The Sun Sentinel has also reported how the district failed to act on warning signs involving the Parkland killer, botched his special education services, failed to hold administrators accountable for actions related to the tragedy and has regularly hidden information from the public.

School Districts don't do themselves any favors when they fail to enforce those disciplinary issued that affect the safety of students.  So, there is a balancing act between the needs of an individual student and the safety of the student body at large. 

As a School Resource Officer for the past 17 years, I've seen it go both ways, I'm convinced that  school administrators try to get it right most of the time.  Generally, (and I"m talking in broad generalization here) a school reflect the community is serves.   If that community has a crime problem the school will reflect that problem.  School districts should not blanch at a particular school being a reflection of the community.