Page 16 - Layout 1

CRCCE0718.qxp_Layout 1 6/25/18 2:05 PM Page 14

Message from the Mayor

alentine’s Day is traditionally meant as a day when you share feelings of love.
Not this year, not for one young man. Instead, he walked into Marjory
VStoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day armed with an AR-15
determined to go on a killing spree. In his wake, 17 students and faculty lost their lives.
That day was one of the most tragic in our community’s history. But the response is just
as heartbreaking. Talk of gun reform has resulted in little from lawmakers in
Washington and Tallahassee. At the same time, improvements to school safety in
Broward County have not materialized.
It’s part of our responsibility as a community to ensure the safety of our most
vulnerable — our children. No parent should send a child to school fearing that the
school grounds will become of place of violence and horrific death.
Despite everything we have witnessed from Columbine to Parkland, the Broward
school district has been slow to respond and has tried to shift its responsibilities to Fort
Lauderdale and other municipalities.
Dean Trantalis The state Legislature took clear action this spring in requiring school districts to staff each
Mayor school with an officer by fall. The districts may contract with cities to provide police
officers, utilize their own police force, or designate and train other staff to do the job.

Fort Lauderdale has long provided police officers – called school resource officers or
SROs – at high schools and middle schools in our jurisdiction even though many
students come from surrounding cities.
The school district has covered less than half the cost of these officers. This has resulted
in a huge subsidy from the city toward school operations. School officials have wanted
cities to continue to pick up this cost even though they now can receive additional aid
from the state for security and are considering a tax increase for it as well.
While the debate continues, our children are vulnerable. Just last week, the city’s
contract with the School Board to provide protection at schools lapsed altogether
despite the city’s repeated requests that the school system take action.
The time is getting late to act.
We have 30 current vacancies in our Police Department and would need some 20
additional officers to cover every elementary and charter school in the city as well as
CITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE the middle and high schools. It would take several years to recruit and train that

14 CORAL RIDGE COUNTRY CLUB ESTATES HOA
14