DeSantis suspends four school board members for mismanagement after 2018 shooting
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Friday suspended four members of the Broward County School Board after a grand jury determined that they had demonstrated negligence and incompetence in the aftermath of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
The members reportedly mismanaged millions in public funds and failed to complete safety upgrades to the district's schools. Broward County School District is the nation's sixth largest, with around 260,000 students.
The suspended members — Patricia Good, Donna P. Korn, Ann Murray, and board chair Laurie Rich Levinson — were all registered Democrats. Several of the new members who replaced them previously worked in Republican politics.
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The grand jury also recommended removing board member Rosalind Osgood (D), but she resigned in March after being elected to the state Senate.
In response to accusations of authoritarianism leveled at the governor, DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw retweeted a clip from a local news story about the grand jury process and the allegations against the board members.
"Since the left can't read, here is a video about who decided the Broward school board members should be fired and the reasons why. @GovRonDeSantis was following the Grand Jury's recommendations!!" the post accompanying the video read.
Earlier this month, DeSantis suspended Tampa-area State Attorney Andrew Warren for putting himself "publicly above the law" by refusing to enforce the state's abortion restrictions.
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Grayson Quay was the weekend editor at TheWeek.com. His writing has also been published in National Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Modern Age, The American Conservative, The Spectator World, and other outlets. Grayson earned his M.A. from Georgetown University in 2019.
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