We must never forget the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida. We must never forget the 17 dead and 16 injured.
And we must never forget the circumstances under which nikolas cruz, was allowed to become the cold-blooded murderer who perpetrated this massacre…
…which leads us straight to the “PROMISE” program.
PROMISE is one of those wonderful sounding social-engineering ideas, complete with its beautiful, inspiring name (an acronym for “Preventing Recidivism through Opportunities, Mentoring, Interventions, Supports & Education”) that is supposed to make things much better for everyone. Troubled kids get a second chance, schools work better, teachers teach more effectively, everyone wins.
Sounds terrific, right?
Well here, from Paul Sperry’s brutally honest analysis at realclearinvestigations.com, is a taste of what PROMISE has actually given Broward County:
Broward County, Fla., school officials portray as a great success their Obama administration-inspired program offering counseling to students who break the law, instead of having them arrested or expelled. They insist that it played no role in February’s school massacre by Nikolas Cruz. They also claim that in fact juvenile recidivism rates are down and school safety is up, thanks to the program.
The evidence tells a far different story.
Broward County juvenile justice division records, federal studies of Broward school district safety and the district’s own internal reporting show that years of “intensive” counseling didn’t just fail to reform repeat offender Cruz, who allegedly went on to shoot and kill 17 people at his high school. Records show such policies have failed to curtail other campus violence and its effects now on the rise in district schools — including fighting, weapons use, bullying and related suicides.
Meanwhile, murders, armed robberies and other violent felonies committed by children outside of schools have hit record levels, and some see a connection with what’s happening on school grounds. Since the relaxing of discipline, Broward youths have not only brazenly punched out their teachers, but terrorized Broward neighborhoods with drive-by shootings, gang rapes, home invasions and carjackings.
Broward County now has the highest percentage of “the most serious, violent [and] chronic”juvenile offenders in Florida, according to the county’s chief juvenile probation officer.
Does that tell a clear enough story?
At what point does Broward County reassess the PROMISE program – by forgoing its fantasy of what the program might have accomplished with the reality of what actually happened?
At what point do these well intentioned fools realize that looking the other way when violent criminal offenses are committed by, and on, school age children is not being “nice”, it is enabling violent criminal behavior – and emboldening the perpetrators to continue, and expand, their violent criminality?
Or is expecting a county that retains scott israel as its sheriff,after he and his donut deputies did NOTHING while cruz was slaughtering his former schoolmates, to do something about school violence, expecting way, way too much?
Sad to say, it probably is.
