ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The number of people in Florida confirmed to have died from the new coronavirus surpassed 10,000 Wednesday, as teachers and state officials argued in court over whether brick-and-mortar schools should be forced to reopen this month.
Florida reported 174 deaths Wednesday, bringing the total number of deaths for residents and nonresidents to at least 10,067 — the fifth highest death toll in the nation. Florida’s daily average reported deaths over the past week was 167 deaths. Two weeks ago, it peaked at 185 deaths.
The state reported a total of 584,047 coronavirus cases, a daily increase of 4,115 cases.
Hospitalizations for the virus have been declining for nearly a month, and the growth in new cases has been decelerating. The positivity rate for COVID-19 testing in Florida has averaged about 11.4% over the past week.
There were 5,351 patients being treated for the disease in Florida hospitals early Wednesday — down from peaks above 9,500 patients in late July.
“Those are all good trends. Those are all positive signs,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a discussion on mental health in Altamonte Springs.
Meanwhile, Florida’s largest teacher’s union argued with attorneys for the state of Florida during a hearing over whether schools should reopen during the pandemic.
The Florida Education Association sued Gov. Ron DeSantis, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, the Florida Department of Education and others to stop brick-and-mortar schools from physically reopening, arguing it is unsafe to do so until the spread of the virus is under control.
The teacher’s union is seeking an injunction from a judge in Tallahassee to stop enforcement of a state order requiring schools to be open five days a week, starting this month.
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Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Incumbent Gregory Tony claimed victory Tuesday night in the race for the Democratic nomination for Broward County sheriff in a campaign centered on a high school massacre and a shooting decades earlier.
Tony was named sheriff in 2019 after Gov. Ron DeSantis fired his predecessor Scott Israel over his handling of the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead.
Tony issued a statement Tuesday night saying he had defeated Israel in the Democratic primary in a county where Democrats hold a 2-1 edge over the GOP in registered voters.
“The Democratic voters of Broward County have spoken and I am deeply honored that they have chosen me to lead the Broward Sheriff’s Office into a brighter, safer future! I promise BSO will become the national model for how a public safety agency can be run,” Tony said in a statement.
There was no immediate response from the Israel campaign.
The Broward County sheriff runs a 6,000-employee operation with a half-billion dollar budget, one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the southeast.
Tony’s campaign was marked by criticism that he had failed to disclose that he fatally shot an 18-year-old in 1993 when he was 14 in Philadelphia. A judge concluded Tony acted in self-defense, but Tony never revealed the shooting to his previous police employer, the governor or the investigators who vetted him for the sheriff’s job.
Israel won election twice before he was removed by DeSantis after the Parkland school shooting. Tony, 41, the county’s first Black sheriff, is a former sergeant in the suburban Coral Springs Police Department. Tony also ran a consulting company that trained officers to confront active shooters.
Broward County Mayor Dale Holness said in a statement that Tony deserved to be elected.
“Sheriff Tony came into office under circumstances that many questioned,” Holness said. “The fact is he performed the job with excellence. He has transformed that department, putting measures in place that holds officers accountable for their actions and making investments in training programs that helps the officers.”
Nikolas Cruz, 21, faces the death penalty if convicted of the Stoneman Douglas killings. His lawyers say he would plead guilty in exchange for a life prison sentence, but prosecutors have rejected that.
MIAMI (AP) — A Florida school district has quarantined 231 students from two high schools, citing exposure to the coronavirus.
Martin County School District said Tuesday that the students at South Fork High School in Stuart, Florida and Jensen Beach High School will switch to remote learning for 14 days. District spokeswoman Jennifer DeShazo said those ordered to stay home included members of a swim team and students who traveled on one of the bus routes.
The school district referred questions to the state health department on the number of students who tested positive or were presumed to be infected before test results were available.
The district in the county north of West Palm Beach had already quarantined some students at three elementary schools after reopening seven days ago.
Over the weekend, two employees at J.D. Parker Elementary School, also in Stuart, Florida reported they experienced COVID-like symptoms, which prompted orders to quarantine.
Other schools in other areas of the state began to reopen this week as the number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 continues to drop statewide.
On Tuesday, there were 5,485 patients compared to 5,657 on Monday. Those numbers have been declining since highs above 9,500 on July 23.
The state health department tallied 219 new deaths, for an overall total of 9,893. This brings the 7-day average of deaths to 173.
The death figures do not represent the number of people who died the previous day, but they are a reflection of the deadliness of the disease during the surge in late June and July.
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Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.
Superintendent’s First Day Schedule, Wednesday, August 19
Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) welcomes students back to class for the new school year through eLearning. District teachers, principals, administrators and staff worked hard over the summer to ensure students and families receive supportive and engaging learning experiences.
Below is Superintendent Robert W. Runcie’s first day schedule:
School Visit at Nova Blanche Forman Elementary School (MEDIA OPPORTUNITY) 3521 Davie Road, Davie Media arrive by 8 a.m. to check in at the school’s front office Superintendent Runcie visits with teachers and administrators who will be in classrooms welcoming students back to school through eLearning. The visit will be followed by a brief question and answer session with media.
Regular School Board Meeting 10 a.m.
Superintendent Runcie attends the Regular School Board meeting being held virtually.
You can view the School Board meeting agenda through this link:
First Day of School News Conference (MEDIA OPPORTUNITY) Kathleen C. Wright Administration Building 600 S.E. Third Avenue, Fort Lauderdale (Front entrance to building) 3 p.m.
Superintendent Runcie will be joined by School Board Chair Donna Korn to provide a recap of the first day of the 2020/21 school year.
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ABOUT BROWARD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
“Committed to educating all students to reach their highest potential.”
Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) is the sixth largest school district in the nation and the second largest in the state of Florida. BCPS is Florida’s first fully accredited school system since 1962. BCPS has nearly 270,000 students and approximately 175,000 adult students in 241 schools, centers and technical colleges, and 89 charter schools. BCPS serves a diverse student population, with students representing 204 different countries and 191 different languages. To connect with BCPS, visit browardschools.com, follow us on Twitter @browardschools, on Facebook at facebook.com/browardschools.com and download the free BCPS mobile app.
BCPS Superintendent Delivers School Supplies for Students Facing Housing Insecurity
WHO: Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) Superintendent Robert W. Runcie, District Staff and Representatives from Broward Partnership – The Road to Health, Jobs & Homes for the Homeless
WHAT: To help ensure all students are prepared for the first day of school, Superintendent Runcie will deliver school supplies to students whose families are facing housing insecurity. The first day of school for BCPS is tomorrow, Wednesday, August 19.
WHEN: Superintendent Delivers School Supplies Today, Tuesday, August 18, 2020 2:30 p.m.
WHY: During school year 2019/20, over 5,000 students were identified as experiencing homelessness in Broward County Public Schools (BCPS). Through the BCPS Homeless Education Assistance Resource Team (HEART), the District works to support the educational needs of students (PreK-12) who are experiencing homelessness as defined by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Such students reside in local emergency and transitional shelters, hotels and motels (due to economic necessity), sharing the housing of others “doubled-up”, or reside in parks, campgrounds, vehicles and other places not intended for human habitation. The overarching goal is to ensure educational stability by removing barriers that might prevent such students experiencing homelessness from enrolling, attending and succeeding in school.
Media are invited to cover today’s event.
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ABOUT BROWARD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
“Committed to educating all students to reach their highest potential.”
Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) is the sixth-largest school district in the nation and the second largest in the state of Florida. The District is Florida’s first fully accredited school system since 1962 and has nearly 270,000 students and approximately 175,000 adult students in 241 schools, centers, and technical colleges, and 92 charter schools. BCPS serves a diverse student population, representing 170 different countries and 147 different languages. To connect with BCPS, visit browardschools.com, follow us on Twitter @browardschools, on Facebook at facebook.com/browardschools.com and download the free BCPS mobile app.
Explorer Meriwether Lewis, who joined William Clark to blaze a trail across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, was born on August 18, 1774, near Charlottesville, Virginia.
Lewis grew up roaming the woods of Albemarle County, near Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. When Jefferson assumed the presidency in 1801, he selected Lewis as his private secretary. Two years later, Jefferson appointed Lewis to lead an exploration of the Louisiana Purchase—the vast territory that the U.S. acquired from France in 1803.
Known as the Corps of Discovery, the expedition set out from Camp River Dubois on May 14, 1804, heading northwest on the Missouri River. They hoped to discover a Northwest Passage—a water route to the Pacific Ocean. The expedition wintered in present-day North Dakota, traveled to what is now Montana, and reached the mouth of the Columbia River in present-day Washington before returning to St. Louis on September 23, 1806.
Lewis and Clark kept detailed journals of their three-year journey. Originally published in 1814, the journals generated excitement about the unknown region and diminished Easterners’ fears about venturing beyond the Mississippi.
For their part in the three-year adventure, Lewis and Clark each received 1,600 acres of public land. Popular acclaim led to Lewis’ assumption of the governorship of the Louisiana Territory and Clark’s appointment as governor of the Missouri Territory. Meriwether Lewis died of mysterious circumstances—either by suicide or murder—on October 11, 1809.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The race for sheriff in one of Florida’s most populous counties centers on a high school massacre and a shooting decades earlier.
Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony is being challenged in Tuesday’s Democratic primary by his predecessor, Scott Israel.
Tony replaced Israel in 2019 after Gov. Ron DeSantis fired Israel over his handling of the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead.
Tony’s campaign has been jarred by his failure to disclose that he fatally shot an 18-year-old in 1993 when he was 14 in Philadelphia. A judge concluded Tony acted in self-defense, but Tony never revealed the shooting to his previous police employer, the governor or the investigators who vetted him.
Tony and Israel are the top contenders in Tuesday’s primary, which also has four lesser-known, lesser-financed candidates. The winner will be a strong favorite in the general election because Democrats hold a two-to-one advantage over Republicans in Broward County.
Israel won election twice before he was removed by DeSantis after the Parkland school shooting. Tony, the county’s first Black sheriff, is a former sergeant in the suburban Coral Springs Police Department. Tony also ran a consulting company that trained officers to confront active shooters.
To ensure students are prepared for a successful 2020/21 school year, the Kiwanis of Little Havana Foundation and AutoNation have teamed up with the Miami Marlins Foundation for the 10th Back to School Program to provide school supplies for Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) students at three elementary schools – Larkdale Elementary School, Morrow Elementary School and Westwood Heights Elementary School.
WHAT: Miami Marlins Back to School Program drive-thru school supplies distribution event at Larkdale Elementary School
WHO: Broward County School Board Members and Superintendent Robert W. Runcie Raquel “Rocky” Egusquiza, Miami Marlins Foundation Executive Director Paula Levenson, AutoNation Director of Purpose and Brand Marketing Kiwanis of Little Havana Volunteers
WHEN: Tuesday, August 18, 2020 9:30 – 11 a.m.
WHERE: Larkdale Elementary School 3250 N.W. 12th Place Lauderhill, FL 33311
Media is invited to cover this event.
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BROWARD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
“Committed to educating all students to reach their highest potential.”
Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) is the sixth-largest school district in the nation and the second-largest in the state of Florida. BCPS is Florida’s first fully accredited school system since 1962. BCPS has more than 271,500 students and approximately 175,000 adult students in 234 schools, centers and technical colleges, and 92 charter schools. BCPS serves a diverse student population, with students representing 170 different countries and 147 different languages. Connect with BCPS: visit the website at browardschools.com, follow BCPS on Twitter @browardschools and Facebook at facebook.com/browardschools, and download the free BCPS mobile app.
On August 17, 1790, the Hebrew Congregation External of Newport, Rhode Island, presented a congratulatory address to President George Washington on the occasion of his visit to their city. Both the address, written by Moses Seixas, and Washington’s response appeared together in several newspapers. They encapsulate Washington’s clearest articulation of his belief in religious freedom and the first presidential affirmation of the free and equal status of Jewish-American citizens.
All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
George Washington, letter to Moses Seixas, August 17, 1790
In 1654, the first group of Jews to arrive in the future U.S. settled in what is now New York. And as early as 1658, Jewish immigrants arrived in Newport seeking religious liberty. Throughout the colonial period, Jews continued to come to North America, settling mainly in seaport towns. By the time of the Declaration of Independence, these immigrants had established several thriving synagogues.
Many British North American colonists were Europeans who left their homes rather than compromise their religious convictions. Yet commitment to the survival of one’s own faith by no means automatically entailed a commitment to the right of others to believe differently. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, people of diverse faiths sought to establish their own religious strongholds in America while variously persecuting or supporting the religious rights of those who believed differently. Their struggles prompted the Founding Fathers to reflect on the overarching need for religious tolerance and freedom.
Thomas Jefferson’s hotly debated Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom External, finally approved by the Virginia legislature in 1786, recognized absolute freedom of belief and set a precedent for separation of church and state that other states later replicated. Its adoption is best understood in the context of intense debate about the place of religion in a free society.
Freedom of religion is upheld by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Drafted by James Madison and adopted in 1791 with the nine other amendments that make up the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment asserts, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” However, the Continental Congress had formally endorsed the principle even earlier. In 1776, it resolved to honor the
…wise policy of these states to extend the protection of their laws to all those who should settle among them of whatever nation or religion they might be, and to admit them to a participation of the benefits of civil and religious freedom.
Although the First Amendment established religious freedom in the United States at the national level, vestiges of the older interdependent relationship between church and state lingered. Many states maintained state-sponsored churches well into the nineteenth century, and the state of Utah was founded by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) as their refuge from persecution.
Three one-time employees of the Fort Braden School, in Tallahassee, Fla.—two of them members of the same family—have died of COVID-19 this summer, losses of life that have deeply affected the school community.
Karen Bradwell, 53, manager of the after-school program at the school, succumbed to the coronavirus in late July. A week earlier, a 19-year old custodian at the school, Jordan Byrd, had died of the disease.
The pain experienced by the Leon County school district did not end there. Last week, Jacqueline Byrd, Jordan’s mother and a former employee of the school, also died of the coronavirus.
Karen Bradwell
Both members of the Byrd family, and Bradwell, are remembered as devoted, caring individuals who made positive contributions to the school system, in very different ways.
The three deaths offer a stark portrait of the indiscriminate toll inflicted by the coronavirus, which has taken the lives of educators of all backgrounds, across many age groups.
Jimbo Jackson, the principal at Fort Braden, praised Bradwell’s devotion to the school, according to an email published by WCTV, a television station. He said he’d known Bradwell for 25 years.
Jordan Byrd
“[Karen] was a solid rock in our school community as our after-school director. More importantly, she was a devoted and loving mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, godmother, and mentor to hundreds of students over many years,” Jackson wrote.
One life lost is one too many, Jackson continued: “She will be terribly missed by all who knew her and her incredibly positive attitude regardless of the situation.”
Cynthia Bradwell, the school’s building supervisor and Bradwell’s sister, posted a message on Facebook.
“I would like to thank everyone for the love and support that was shown to my family and I during this difficult time; we really appreciated everyone reaching out to us to provide words of comfort, donations, and most importantly prayers. We are overly blessed to have so many friends near and far that loved Karen; She will truly be missed. God Bless!”
COVID-19 has had a broad and ongoing impact on the Leon County School System, of which the Fort Braden School is a part.
Last month, the Fort Braden school principal, Jackson, announced that he and his wife, Beth Jackson, who is principal at Hawk’s Rise Elementary School in the district, and his brother all tested positive for coronavirus, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. All three are believed to be recovering, the Democrat reported.
Jacqueline Byrd, 55, who passed away last week, was a former Fort Braden school employee, the newspaper said.
In a message posted on Facebook, Jacqueline Byrd’s surviving son, Jacary, paid honor to his mother and brother.
“To my heart I will definitely miss you‼️” he wrote. “You and Jordan Byrd have both left me. I know that you both are having a good time in the Lord. Mommy I will definitely miss you.”
The deaths come as the 34,000-student Leon County school district, like many others across Florida, prepares for the in-person reopening of its schools. Those plans have deeply worried educators in the state who are concerned about their exposure to the virus. The Leon County system said it will reopen in-person classes on Aug. 31, though it will have an online-only option for families.
‘People Gravitated to Him’
When Tricia Rizza, Jordan Byrd’s English professor at Tallahassee Community College, heard of his passing, two things popped into her mind: his positivity and hard work.
“He really was this quiet beacon in the class,” Rizza said in an interview.
“He wasn’t the one who wanted a lot of attention drawn on him and yet when he participated, it just happened people gravitated to him, and it was done so humbly.”
In Rizza’s class, Jordan sat in the second-to last-row. “I found myself a lot of times walking back into his area because he did participate and he had great discussions and worked with others constantly,” Rizza remembered.
When the college made the shift from in-person classes to online, Rizza said Jordan’s positivity shined through.
“Jordan would say something like, ‘You guys, I get it. This is not the way we want it. But we have to plow through. We’ve only got four weeks left, so we’ve got to make the best of it,’” Rizza said.
“That was kind of his message where he acknowledged that everybody was struggling, but in a sense he was that person that helped push us forward.
