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The Parents Need to Know Act
This weekend, as people celebrate Valentine’s Day with candy hearts, cards, and flowers, the Parkland community will mourn the third anniversary of the tragic Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting, which claimed the lives of 17 people and injured 17 more.
To prevent another Parkland from happening again, Florida Representative Dan Daley, who is a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, filed HB-951, the Parents Need to Know Act. This Act would require schools to notify parents and staff within 24 hours when a threat or incident has taken place on campus and to include what actions were taken in response to the threat. The bill would also create a hotline and online reporting system for parents to report school safety issues. In the Senate, a companion will be filed by Senator Shevrin Jones.
The Parents Need to Know Act is an attempt to undo the reckless precedent set by Judge Englander Henning. On February 9th, Broward Circuit Judge Patti Englander ruled the Broward County School District had no duty to warn parents of the threat posed by the Parkland shooter. Judge Patti Englander Henning said, “Broward County school district cannot be held liable for failing to predict actions that were beyond its control.”
However, predictions of Cruz’s future actions were not that far-fetched. Similar to other school shooters, Nikolas Cruz…