After weeks of denial, the Broward County school district finally admitted over the weekend that the suspected Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School gunman was referred to the PROMISE program at least once in 2013. In light of these developments, Heritage Foundation senior policy analyst Jonathan Butcher offered the following response:

“The PROMISE program officially failed to protect students in Broward County. This school discipline program is meant to ‘correct student behavior’ with the goal of a ‘safe, secure, and supportive environment for all students.’ Now, we learn that alleged shooter Nikolas Cruz was referred to PROMISE for problems in 2013.”

“As Heritage has shown, the PROMISE program resembles a 2014 federal ‘Dear Colleague’ letter on school discipline, and Broward County officials claimed that the PROMISE program inspired the federal letter.”

“Since the federal guidance represents federal overreach into the concerns of local schools and in light of this serious failure in PROMISE, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration should rescind the 2014 federal school discipline guidance.”