Comment Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis (D) suspended four elected school board members on Friday after a grand jury found they had acted negligently and incompetently in implementing safety measures at schools in Broward County and recommended their removal. The grand jury investigation was prompted by a 2018 shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people. In its report, released last week, the grand jury said the Broward school board had mismanaged an $800 million bond-funded program and failed to deliver on promised projects, including safety upgrades to its schools. “It is my duty to suspend individuals from office when there is clear evidence of incompetence, dereliction of duty, misconduct or misconduct,” DeSantis said in a statement. “We are grateful to the members of the jury who devoted countless hours to this mission, and we hope that this suspension will bring the Parkland community another step toward justice.” Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale, is the nation’s sixth largest school district and is responsible for approximately 260,000 students. The rare decision to forcibly remove elected officials from office was praised by families of school violence victims, but also sparked accusations of political overreach. DeSantis removed Patricia Good, Donna P. Korn, Ann Murray and Laurie Rich Levinson from the board. (The jury also recommended the removal of a fifth board member, who has since been elected to the state Senate.) While school board seats are nonpartisan, all of the elected officials DeSantis removed are registered Democratic voters. Several of their replacements worked in Republican politics. “What country is this? What Governor DeSantis did is un-American and un-democratic,” Levinson said, according to the Miami Herald. “Just because you may disagree on local policy decisions is no reason to remove someone from elected office.” Earlier this month, DeSantis also fired an elected Democratic county attorney for refusing to prosecute some cases related to abortion and gender-affirming care. the employee has sued for reinstatement. DeSantis, who is considered a possible contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has made a name for himself in conservative circles by intervening on issues such as the teaching of race and LGBTQ issues in schools. Earlier this week, conservative candidates supporting his education agenda triumphed in more than a dozen local contests. The governor’s intervention “is very unusual,” said William Bainbridge, an expert on Florida educational institutions. “My concern is whether the lewd activity going on here is an excuse for Ron DeSantis to appoint like-minded people.” DeSantis spreads influence with “anti-woke” school board victories. Relatives of the victims of the 2018 shooting applauded DeSantis for holding officials accountable. “They directly affected decisions that caused a lack of discipline and let our children and spouses be murdered,” said Tony Modalto, president of Stand With Parkland, an advocacy group made up of victims’ families. “The failure to do their job contributed to the deaths that occurred … This is not political.” In the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the Florida Supreme Court impaneled a grand jury at DeSantis’ request. The panel was asked to investigate whether school districts were receiving state funds to upgrade security measures without properly implementing them. The report found that promised projects were delayed and significantly more expensive in Broward County than the school board had originally estimated. “Students continue to be educated in dangerous, aging, dilapidated, moldy buildings that were supposed to have been renovated years ago,” the investigation found. “District officials often act as if they don’t even care to know the realities of its schools, reminding us of nothing so much as the proverbial herd of ostriches that bury their heads to avoid facing reality,” the grand jury wrote .
