[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]The chairman of the state commission investigating the Parkland school shooting said he wants to make the commission’s entire report public, without any of the attempts at secrecy that led to court fights between government agencies and media organizations in the aftermath of the massacre.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, chairman of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, said in an interview that his goal is to release the entire report, with no sections redacted to protect privacy or security.
“I hope to make it all public,” Gualtieri said. “That’s my desire. I’m a big believer in transparency. But we’re also limited by legal requirements. So I’ve got to figure out a way that we can get the information out. The more clear facts that people have mitigate the made-up information.”
The commission’s initial report, due Jan. 1, is among the most highly anticipated events in the aftermath of the shooting. The state Legislature and incoming governor will be awaiting the report to see what laws should be passed or how the budget should be adjusted in the upcoming Legislative session. The Broward County School District says it’s holding off on disciplinary actions over any lapses in school security or the handling of troubled students until the report comes out.
From the first days after the Feb. 14 massacre, there have been conflicts over government secrecy, school security and the right to privacy, as media organizations repeatedly went to court to force the release of reports, surveillance videos and other information on the shooting
Gualtieri said his goal of a completely public report may be difficult to achieve, given federal privacy laws that would limit what could be said about the shooter Nikolas Cruz’s mental health treatment and education record. But he said it’s important to do so to combat the rumors and false information that have swirled around the shooting.
As examples of misleading information, he pointed to accusations that the school district’s PROMISE program, which allows students who commit minor crimes to avoid arrest, played a role in the shooting. Or that the 43 contacts by the Broward Sheriff’s Office with the Cruz household indicated gross negligence on the agency’s part, since most of the contacts involved Cruz’s brother or mother or were extremely minor. Or that a failure to commit Cruz under the Baker Act was relevant, since such commitment is temporary and would not have made a difference.
“People have got to stop with the false information and the rumor mill,” he said. “And sometimes what causes that is they’re not getting, in a timely way, the accurate information. One of the things that I embrace as a challenge is to get people accurate, objective information so that they know what happened and we can quell some of that.”
“So I think it’s very important that we publish a report that contains as much information as we can, even if we have to do it in some sort of summary fashion that protects the privacy rights and the legal obligations but still gets it out there.”
The commission, which holds its next meetings Wednesday and Thursday at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, has gone into closed session to consider Cruz’s contact with the educational and mental health systems. Although the commission was required by law to do it this way, Gualtieri said he considered that “unfortunate” and said he will work with his colleagues to find a way to work as much of what they learned into the report.
For example, although it will be difficult to show in detail while abiding by privacy laws, he said the report will show that Cruz received intense, long-term mental health services.
“People will be stunned by the sheer volume of services that the Cruz family received,” he said.
As part of the commission’s discussions Wednesday, it will consider the content and format of the report to be produced by the first of the year.
YES!!! Let the truth flow like a fucking river!
The first of their reports is due on/around Jan 1st, 2019. I eagerly wait for this.
Subject: Chairman of Parkland commission hopes to make report entirely public 
Mon Sep 03, 2018 2:39 pm
We all know that Nik had several issues that were well known. Although the amount of "help" he received seems to be highly contested. Some say he received very little help, while others and this suggests that he had gotten A LOT of help. 
