One Man’s Walk through life

“It’s not just a school district problem

Teachers say Florida suspect’s problems started in middle school

canada goose black friday sale PARKLAND, Fla. The real problems started at least as early as middle school and quickly intensified. There were the vocal outbursts, disturbing drawings of stick figures with guns, constant disciplinary issues. There were threatening statements written on his homework and scrap paper, including a reference to killing President Barack Obama, saying he should be “burned alive and eaten.” canada goose black friday sale

buy canada goose jacket Some teachers banned Nikolas Cruz from their classrooms at Westglades Middle School because of his erratic behavior. One teacher said he was barred from bringing a backpack to the school and that security personnel had to search him to ensure he didn’t have weapons. Teachers were very concerned about him and were working to get him help. buy canada goose jacket

“Looking in his eyes, he just looked like there was a problem,” said a teacher who worked with Cruz in sixth grade and spoke canada goose coats on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. “His behavior in Canada Goose Outlet class wasn’t constantly wrong, but every once in a while, it was. He would just spew something out of his mouth that was inappropriate.”

Canada Goose online Several teachers who knew Cruz in middle school Canada Goose online said in interviews that he was an increasing behavioral challenge for the school system and appeared to be Canada Goose Parka on a troublesome path. history, Cruz faced a long string of escalating disciplinary measures throughout canadian goose jacket his academic career for insubordination, profanity, disruption, fighting and assault. Canada Goose online

canada goose coats on sale “I can say I was so uncomfortable around cheap Canada Goose him, I did not want to be alone with him in my classroom,” said one former teacher, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. “That is how disruptive his behavior was.” canada goose coats on sale

canada goose uk shop [Florida students plead with Congress: It’s about the guns] canada goose uk shop

canada goose In one school year, when Cruz was in middle school, he racked up numerous infractions including for a fight during the Canada Goose Jackets second week of school and continuing with a pattern of unruly behavior, insults and profanity, according to disciplinary records obtained by WPLG Local 10, an ABC television affiliate in Miami Canada Goose sale that shared the records with The Washington Post. canada goose

Teachers said that by eighth grade he was lashing out physically randomly bumping other students in the hallways, appearing to want to pick confrontations and fights, and at times breaking into profanity laced tirades without any apparent trigger.

“Something would just upset him and he would just do it and come to class and act out,” one teacher said. His homework scrawls got more troublesome, including repeated tirades against American society, the comment about Obama and other writings teachers found alarming. He put a swastika on a www.likecanadagoose.com test. He wrote about his intense interest in, and support for, guns.

His canada goose clearance sale middle school and high school teachers referred him to individual and family counseling, the records show. They held parent conferences and called social workers. They sent him to in school suspension, and they sent him off campus. For a time, they sent him to a school for emotionally disturbed youth. Finally, after he was disciplined for an assault at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, they asked for an assessment of the threat he posed to his school, and ultimately he was expelled, about a year before he returned with a gun.

It is unclear how complete the records are, and a Broward County schools spokeswoman said she could not comment on them due to “student privacy rules.”

Instead of slipping through the cracks, it appears Cruz was the target of aggressive work to help put him on the right track. But it also appears he might have hit the limit of what could be done.

[‘People are angry’: Pain turns political in Parkland after school shooting]

Teachers worked “very, very, very hard” to get Cruz to a school center that would help him address his issues, said the sixth grade teacher, who noted that Cruz’s now deceased mother also understood canada goose his problems and wanted to canada goose outlet get him help. But that process took years, the teacher said, and required loads of paperwork to back up Cruz’s needs.

“We do, as teachers, everything that we possibly can to help these children, we truly do,” the teacher said. “And it’s a process. It’s a big process. You have to have just so much information, which we did on him, we had so much.”

Cruz’s past interactions with the Broward County schools have come into increasing focus since the shooting Wednesday, when he took an Uber to his former high school, walked inside and allegedly started firing into classrooms on two floors, killing 17 people, many of them teenagers. A school official on notice that he could pose a danger immediately raised concerns with other staffers upon seeing him approach, but buy canada goose jacket cheap it was too late.

uk canada goose outlet Howard Finkelstein, the Broward County public defender representing Cruz, has decried the shooting as avoidable, emphasizing canada goose coats on sale all the red flags that were missed in his client’s life including at school, in the mental health system and with the FBI, which failed to investigate a tip last month that Cruz seemed capable of violence and might shoot up a school. uk canada goose outlet

canada goose uk black friday “What we have gathered so far looks to us like this is a complete multi system failure, that you had the school system failed.. you had the mental health system failed,” Finkelstein said. “When he went to purchase a gun, that system canada goose deals failed… The FBI failed. When you look at it, this should never have happened.” canada goose uk black friday

Canada Goose sale Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie declined to comment on Cruz’s disciplinary past, but he said he is reviewing how Cruz’s case was handled. Canada Goose sale

canadian goose jacket “There’s always more that you could do, or could have done, but the fact is that there’s more that the federal leadership and government could do,” Runcie said in an interview Saturday. “They could put resources and make priority investments so that we can properly service these students who are disengaged or have mental health issues. That’s what could have been done better.” canadian goose jacket

[‘We are going to make a change’: Why one student is organizing a march after the Florida shooting]

canada goose factory sale Runcie said that while the district has a responsibility to ensure student safety, it cannot fall solely on a school district to handle mental illness. canada goose factory sale

canada goose clearance “We need greater investments in mental health, social emotional services for our kids,” Runcie said. “It’s not just a school district problem. We can’t solve every problem.” canada goose clearance

canada goose clearance sale According to federal data, the district had about 580 counselors during the 2015 2016 school year, or about one counselor for every 462 students. The American School Counselor Association recommends one counselor for every 250 students. canada goose clearance sale

Canada Goose Online While the school system falls short, it still has a canada goose clearance far lower student to counselor ratio than most canada goose store school districts in the United States. Canada Goose Online

Broward County schools once recorded more in school arrests than any other Florida school system. But that harsh approach fell out of favor amid concerns that it was funneling too many young people and particularly black and Hispanic students into the juvenile justice system. Cruz is listed on official documents as being white.

Canada Goose Jackets In recent years, Broward schools became a leader in the national move toward a different kind of discipline one that would not just punish students, but also would help them address the root causes of their misbehavior. Such policies aim to combat what is known as the “school to prison pipeline,” giving teenagers a chance to stick with their education rather than get derailed, often permanently, by criminal charges Canada Goose Jackets.

No comments yet.

Leave a comment