Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday suspended four members of the Broward County School Board after a grand jury report called for their firing, Politico reports.
DeSantis suspended the members are a grand jury report faulted them for “neglect of duty and incompetence” in handing a multi-million dollar grant to improve campus security.
DeSantis said that he hopes the move “brings the Parkland community another step towards justice.”
“It is my duty to suspend people from office when there is clear evidence of incompetence, neglect of duty, misfeasance or malfeasance,” DeSantis said in a statement. “This action is in the best interest of the residents and students of Broward County and all citizens of Florida.”
Parkland report:
The Parkland grand jury in a report released last week blamed five of the country’s school board members for security failures and declaring that they “need to go.”
The security bond, which was approved four years before the Parkland shooting, was supposed to be completed by the end of 2021 for $987 million but is now projected to cost$1.5 billion and wrap up by 2025.
The grand jury claimed the board members failed to hold school officials accountable and accused them of “deceit, malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty and incompetence.”
Pushback:
As a result of the move, DeSantis appointed his own board members, giving the Republican allies in the Democratic stronghold.
One of the board members, Laurie Rich Levinson, slammed DeSantis over the suspensions.
“What Governor DeSantis did is un-American and undemocratic. He doesn’t care about democracy and overturned the will of the voters,” Levinson said in a statement. “This action is authoritarian-like and has no place in the United States of America where the voters decide who represents them.”
