BOCA RATON, Fla. — A Florida high school principal took to the morning announcements Thursday to assure students and warn that some privileges may soon go away in the name of safety.
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But in short order, Spanish River High School Principal William Latson's tough love dissolved into near tears — the cracking voice and long pauses of a principal who is also a parent who waited more than six hours to hear news of his son, a seventh-grader at a middle school next to Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland, where a shooting left 17 people dead and more than a dozen injured.
While some principals sent home emails or recorded robo-calls to parents, the district’s chief operating officer, Donald Fennoy, said work had begun to address a backlog of safety-related work orders that had been put off for a year or more because of budget shortfalls.
“The bottom line is I need to keep you safe and I need to do things that the principal at Stoneman Douglas can’t do today and that is send all the kids home safe,” Latson said, his voice cracking.
Wednesday’s shooting had principals and administrators across the Palm Beach County School District focused on safety before the first bell Thursday.
“They’re moving on this right now,” Fennoy said at lunchtime Thursday.
In the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, Palm Beach County administrators tapped the Boca Raton and other local police departments to provide additional security at schools in the region. While the police presence was up, attendance, particularly in the southernmost schools, was down. The students are off Friday while teachers have a work day. School will be back in session Monday.