FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ A Broward judge on Wednesday chastised the South Florida Sun Sentinel for publishing legally obtained information about Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz.
Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer faulted the newspaper's lawyer, Dana McElroy, for leaving her with the impression in previous hearings that the Sun Sentinel agreed not to publish any information that was exempt from disclosure under Florida's public records laws.
McElroy said the Sun Sentinel had never made such a promise and that court orders barring release of information were directed at government agencies, not the media. The Sun Sentinel agreed that those agencies, particularly the Broward School Board, had the right to withhold privileged information from the public under the law.
But once the information was released, McElroy said, the news organization was well within its legal right to publish it.
A coalition of 30 media organizations, led by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and including the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Society of News Editors, came to the Sun Sentinel's side in a court brief filed Tuesday, calling on the judge to deny the Broward School Board's motion to penalize the news organization and two of its reporters, Paula McMahon and Brittany Wallman.
The school district on Aug. 3 released a report based on Cruz's education record, revealing what officials could and should have known about him in the years leading up to his Feb. 14 attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where he killed 17 people and wounded 17 more.
By court order, the district was supposed to black out nearly two-thirds of the report because it disclosed information that Cruz was entitled to keep private even under Florida's public records laws.
But the method used to post the report on the district's website made it possible for anyone to read the blacked-out portions by copying and pasting it into another file.
The reporters disclosed the private contents, which included revelations that:
_ School officials didn't properly advise Cruz of his legal options when he was faced with removal from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School his junior year, leading him to give up special education services.
_ When Cruz failed to file the required written rejection of special education services, school officials nudged him, writing it up for him to sign.
_ The district "did not follow through" on Cruz's subsequent request to return to the therapeutic environment of Cross Creek School for special education students.
The school board accused the Sun Sentinel and its reporters of violating a court order to keep the information private.
In its response last week, the Sun Sentinel argued that the court order was directed at the school district, which failed to comply when it made the full contents of the report available to the public.
The coalition of media organizations cited legal precedent holding that a news organization is entitled to publish information it has obtained legally.
