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Little tracking, wide variability permeate the teams tasked with stopping school shootings • Florida Phoenix

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floridaphoenix.com – Cheryl Platzman Weinstock – 2025-01-31 06:08:00

Little tracking, wide variability permeate the teams tasked with stopping school shootings

by Cheryl Platzman Weinstock, Florida Phoenix
January 31, 2025

Max Schachter wanted to be close to his son Alex on his birthday, July 9, so he watched old videos of him.

“It put a smile on my face to see him so happy,” Schachter said.

Alex would have turned 21 that day, six years after he and 16 other children and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, were shot and killed by a former student in 2018. In the years before the shooting, that former student had displayed concerning behavior that elicited dozens of calls to 911 and at least two tips to the FBI.

“Alex should still be here today. It’s not fair,” Schachter said.

Max Schachter with his son Alex. (Max Schachter)

After two weeks of grieving Alex’s death, Schachter, propelled by anger and pain, began advocating for school safety. In part, he wanted to ensure his three other children would never be harmed in the same way. He joined the newly formed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission to improve the safety and security of Florida’s students. And he launched a nonprofit bearing Alex’s name, which advocates for school safety.

Doing that work, he learned about threat assessment teams, groups of law enforcement and school officials who try to identify potentially dangerous or distressed kids, intervene, and prevent the next school shooting. Florida is one of about 18 states that require schools to have threat assessment and intervention teams; a national survey estimates 85% of public schools have a team assigned to the task.

The teams, whose mission and operational strategies often are based on research from the FBI and the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center, or NTAC, have become more common as the number of school shootings has increased. Despite their prevalence for almost 25 years, some of the teams have developed systemic problems that put them at risk of unfairly labeling and vilifying children.

States vary widely in their requirements of threat assessment teams and there isn’t a nationwide archetype. Few school districts and states collect data about the teams, little is known about their operations, and research on their effectiveness at thwarting mass shootings and other threats is limited. But a 2021 analysis by the NTAC of 67 plots against K-12 schools found that people “contemplating violence often exhibit observable behaviors, and when community members report these behaviors, the next tragedy can be averted.”

“School shooters have a long thought process. They don’t just snap. They have concerning behavior over time. If we can identify them early, we can intervene,” said Karie Gibson, chief of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit.

Yet, Dewey Cornell, a forensic clinical psychologist who in 2001 developed one of the first sets of guidelines for school threat assessment teams, said there have been problems. In many cases, he said, threats have been deemed not serious “but parents and teachers are so alarmed that it is difficult to assuage their fears. The school community gets in an uproar and the school administrators feel pressured to expel the student.”

And in other cases, a school doesn’t do a threat assessment and assumes a student is dangerous when somebody else reports them as a threat, and they may take a zero-tolerance approach and remove them from the school, said Cornell, the Virgil S. Ward professor of education at the University of Virginia.

A task force convened by the American Psychological Association found little evidence that zero-tolerance policies have improved school climate or school safety and said they may create negative mental health outcomes for students. The task force cited examples of students who were expelled for incidents or school rule violations as minor as having a knife in their lunch box for cutting an apple.

Several states, including Florida, require schools to assemble teams of law enforcement and education officials to identify students who could become mass shooters and intervene before it’s too late. But some experts say the efforts often face a lack of guidance and significant pressure, putting them at risk of maligning innocent students.

Marisa Randazzo, a research psychologist and the director of threat assessment for Georgetown University, said she has also seen “hyperreactions,” especially among school communities that have experienced a mass killing.

“It’s understandable. People who have been close to an event like this are on higher alert than other people,” said Randazzo, who previously worked for the Secret Service and co-founded Sigma Threat Management Associates.

Threat assessments are supposed to be a graduated process calibrated to the seriousness of a problem, since the majority of student threats are not credible and can be resolved through supportive interventions, according to research from the Secret Service.

Stephanie Crawford-Goetz, a school psychologist and the director of mental health for student support services in the Douglas County School District in Colorado, where a shooting occurred at a charter school in 2019, said her district’s threat assessment process emphasizes a proactive, rehabilitative approach to managing potential threats, as the NTAC suggests.

Crawford-Goetz said her district interviews students before convening the team to assess whether a threat is a misguided expression of anger or frustration and if the student has a plan and means to carry out violence.

Students whose threats are deemed transient receive support, such as help with coping skills, and they may meet with a mental health provider.

If the threat is credible, a student may be temporarily removed from the classroom or school.

Randazzo said the vast majority of kids who make threats are suicidal or despondent: “The process is designed primarily to figure out if someone is in crisis and how we can help. It is not designed to be punitive.”

Crawford-Goetz tells parents about her district’s threat assessment team at the beginning of the school year. Some districts report keeping their teams a secret from parents, which is not how they were designed to operate, said Lina Alathari, chief of the NTAC. Her team encourages schools to educate the whole community about the threat assessment process.

Some advocacy groups contend that threat assessment teams have perpetuated inequities. There has also been widespread concern that children with disabilities can easily get swept into a threat assessment.

In a 2022 report, the National Disability Rights Network, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., said some threat assessment teams have become “judge, jury, and executioner,” going beyond assessing risk of serious, imminent harm to determining guilt and punishment.

Expanding their scope allows threat assessment teams to get around civil rights protections, the report says.

Cornell disputed the disability rights group’s conclusion. “This has not been corroborated by scientific studies and is speculative,” he said.

Some states, such as Florida, mandate that threat assessment teams determine whether a student’s disability played a role in their behavior and recommend they include special education teachers and other professionals in their evaluation.

In Texas, which has mandated threat assessment teams, a third of students subjected to threat assessments in the Dallas Independent School District receive special education services.

Yet, the district doesn’t have a special education staff representative on its threat assessment team, according to a March 2023 report by Texas Appleseed, a nonprofit public interest justice center.

Many school districts are developing their own models in the absence of national standards for threat assessments.

Bob Gualtieri via Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.

Florida revamped its threat assessment system in January 2024 to improve response times, provide consistent data collection, and build in more checks and balances and oversight, said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, who is also chair of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission.

The new model requires the teams to work quickly and file uniform, electronic summary reports of threat assessment findings. Those results follow students throughout their school years.

The adjustments are intended to eliminate the risk of not knowing about a student’s past troubling behavior if they change schools, as occurred with the Parkland shooter and a student who shot and killed classmates at a high school near Winder, Georgia, in September, said Gualtieri.

“As parents, you never stop worrying about your kids,” Schachter said.

Virginia mandates that all public schools and higher education institutions, including colleges, have threat assessment teams. In Florida, where one of Schachter’s daughters attends college, threat assessment teams are mandated in all public schools, including charter schools.

“There’s more work to be done,” Schachter said.

Cheryl Platzman Weinstock’s reporting is supported by a grant from the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

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Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.

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Florida Dreamers aren’t giving up just yet

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floridaphoenix.com – Mitch Perry – 2025-04-04 06:00:00

by Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
April 4, 2025

In a sweeping immigration bill designed to help President Donald Trump enact his mass deportations of unauthorized immigrants, the Florida Legislature earlier this year repealed a 2014 law allowing individuals brought to the U.S. as children without documentation, known as “Dreamers,” to pay in-state tuition rates at Florida colleges and universities.

That abrupt change will affect approximately 6,500 undergraduates, according to the Florida Policy Institute.

When the measure went before the Florida Senate in February, South Florida Democrat Jason Pizzo offered an amendment to grandfather in any dreamer enrolled in a state college or university so they could continue pay that in-state tuition for an additional four years.

It didn’t pass.

Advocates aren’t giving up, though. This week, the group TheDream.US trekked to the Capitol to resume the fight. Specifically, they hope to revive the idea of allowing students now enrolled to continue paying in-state rates until they graduate.

“Right now, they’re working on the budget, and we know that the budget needs to pass, right?” said TheDream.US president and CEO Gaby Pacheco.

“And so it could be a potential vehicle for us to get a grandfathered-in clause. The hope is that the House as they’re working through this perhaps put in an amendment. We’re not legislators, so we don’t necessarily know the ins and outs. We’re just hoping that they know that this is important for the state of Florida, for their constituents, for these students and our college systems.”

Pacheco made regular visits to the Capitol in 2023 to defend against the threatened cutoff of in-state tuition for dreamers. Gov. Ron DeSantis announced before that legislative session a slate of proposals cracking down on illegal immigration.

Yet, somehow, the law survived that year. It wasn’t the first time that some Republicans in the Legislature had attempted to repeal the measure. But after last year’s election, in which illegal immigration was a central issue, DeSantis made it clear to state lawmakers at the beginning of this year that he wanted the law struck down.

‘Everything that I’ve fought for’

Among those joining Pacheco in the Capitol this week was a 20-year-old student from the University of Central Florida who wanted to be identified only by her first name of Callie, out of fear she could be targeted because of her immigration status.

She’s a junior majoring in advertising and public relations who has accumulated 80 credits toward her degree and says that will be up to 100 by the end of the spring semester — not enough yet to graduate.

But as of July 1, when the law takes effect, she’ll be forced to pay full tuition. “That means I can no longer afford my public education and will have to give up everything that I’ve fought for,” she said.

In addition to her studies, Cailie works between 20 and 36 hours a week at Publix and spends her free time volunteering to help students prepare college scholarship applications. Her tuition is roughly $2,800 a semester, covered through a scholarship from TheDream.US. It will more than double after the law takes effect — an amount she says she can’t bear.

Cailie, 20, migrated to the United States from Haiti almost seven years ago. Her parents aren’t supporting her, she said, as she was forced to leave home at 16. Her rough upbringing compelled her to try to make a better life for herself but, without the benefit of in-state tuition, “it’s impossible.”

She spent part of Tuesday meeting with lawmakers to explain her plight, although she knows it’s an uphill battle.

“It’s hard to get people to change their mind, so all we’re asking for are the current students to be grandfathered in and protected for now,” she said. “Because most of us only have a few more credits to go, and it’s so unfair that we had to fight so hard to get here and just knowing that all of a sudden it meant nothing? That’s hard.”

Cailie’s ambition is to start her own business helping other students from low-income families get educations like she’s been able to achieve — for now, anyway.

“I want to be a role model to show them that I come from an undeveloped country, that I didn’t have the same opportunities as everybody else, and I made it, so it’s possible. The U.S. is a country of opportunists, but now I’m wondering if that’s even true anymore.”

Pacheco acknowledges her group has limited leverage with the Legislature, but believes it’s worth the effort.

“At the end of the day, we’re practically begging,” she said. “We’re saying, ‘Please do not do this to these students. Please do not do this to 6,000 young people who have worked so hard to get so far, and that are so close to be able to get those college degrees.’”

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Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.

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Consumers fear Trump's tariffs will hike prices

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www.youtube.com – CBS Miami – 2025-04-03 21:40:23

SUMMARY: Consumers are feeling the financial impact of President Trump’s recent tariff policies, particularly at grocery stores. Shoppers report significant price increases on essential items, with one mother noting the price of eggs and milk has risen from around a dollar to over three dollars. Families, like Ruby King’s of seven, are struggling with rising costs, including an additional $250 in rent. The president has imposed tariffs of 20% on EU goods and 34% on Chinese imports, which will raise prices for consumers. While the stock market faced a sharp decline, financial experts advise against making impulsive changes to retirement plans based on short-term fluctuations.

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Florida Senate wants to appropriate $200M to help struggling citrus industry | Florida

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Steve Wilson | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-03 12:55:00

(The Center Square) – Florida Senate President Ben Albritton wants to spend $200 million to help the state’s ailing citrus industry as it faces the issues of population growth, hurricanes and an invasive disease that ruins the fruit.

The Wauchula Republican whose district constitutes the heart of Florida’s citrus country proposes spending $190 million for grove management, therapeutic tools and disease-resistant varieties for new plantings and the rehabilitation of existing trees.

The Senate’s budget proposal, Senate Bill 2500, would also appropriate $10 million to assist citrus producers increase their yields. Growers would receive $125 million of the $190 million to purchase new trees, while $10 million would be for citrus packing houses. 

“Mark my words, Florida citrus is not going down on my watch,” Albritton said in a news release announcing the proposal. “This heritage industry is not only vital to our state’s economy, but it is truly a part of the DNA of Florida. To those growers who are left in the business, hear me when I say, you are not forgotten, you are not alone, and the Florida Senate is running to this fight.

“Research and new technologies offer a renewed hope for the future of citrus. Florida will lead the way in pursuing these opportunities. We’re on the edge of something special. Florida citrus is making a comeback, one tree at a time.”

But is it too late?

Florida’s production of citrus fruit has plummeted 90% in the past two decades, going from 300 million boxes to only 20 million boxes, according to a data from a December report by the nonprofit group Florida Taxwatch.

One of the issues is citrus greening disease, which has infected all of the state’s commercial groves. The disease causes the fruit to become bitter and eventually kills the trees. There is no cure and $61 million has been spent by state officials on research to no avail.

The bacterial infection spread by an invasive insect, the Asian citrus psyllid, appeared in 2005 and, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, can reduce production by 75% and doubled production costs from 2005 to 2015. 

Destructive hurricanes also have played havoc with the state’s groves. In 2004, four hurricanes made landfall in Florida: Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne and the state’s citrus product dropped by 150 million boxes.

In 2024, three hurricanes – Beryl, Helene and Milton – hit the state in 66 days. As a result, the USDA predicted in December a 20% drop from the October forecast for all orange production and levels were down across the board for citrus. 

Freezes can also affect citrus yields as well. 

Non-Valencia oranges were predicted to have a 17% drop from the October forecast, 22% falloff for Valencia oranges, 14% reduction for grapefruit and tangerine and mandarin production predicted to fall by 13%.

Population growth, according to Florida Taxwatch, has also played a role as growers find selling their land to developers more lucrative than continuing to struggle amid hurricanes and rising production costs.  

At stake is a $6.9 billion industry that Florida Taxwatch says supports more than 32,000 jobs.

The post Florida Senate wants to appropriate $200M to help struggling citrus industry | Florida appeared first on www.thecentersquare.com

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