A perjury charge against former Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie was dropped Tuesday, two years after he testified in front of a Florida grand jury investigating the school safety in the wake of the Parkland shooting.
Runcie, who both resigned and was arrested on the perjury charge in 2021, was Broward County’s superintendent when convicted murderer Nicholas Cruz killed 17 students and staff members at the district’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The case has its roots in a $1 billion bond measure—passed four years before the Parkland shooting—that Runcie and supporters said would be used primarily for school safety improvements, the Associated Press reported. The grand jury accused Runcie and school board members of mismanaging the bond funds, according to the AP.
The grand jury was requested by Gov. Ron DeSantis to investigate whether Broward and other districts were complying with safety laws in the wake of the Parkland massacre, according to the Miami Herald. Prosecutors alleged that Runcie, in his grand jury testimony, lied about having spoken to a witness in a separate case before the grand jury, the Herald reported.
In dismissing the perjury charge, the judge ruled that the state only has jurisdiction over crimes that occur in multiple counties and found that Runcie only testified in a single county, according to the Associated Press. Florida’s attorney general will likely appeal the decision, the AP added.
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In a 2020 interview with District Administration, Runcie talked about how he was guiding Broward County schools in dismantling systemic racism and implicit biases. There are hundreds of “discretionary moments” during the school day when teachers may negatively alter facial expressions and body language—whether consciously or unconsciously—when different students raise their hands or behave in certain ways, Runcie said.
“Those discretionary moments can have a significant impact on student learning and engagement,” Runcie told DA. “Our schools can be ground zero for a better dialogue, for a better level of conversation among adults who can better prepare the next generation to behave in ways that are an improvement on what we see going on today.”
Robert Runcie is currently the chief in residence at Chiefs for Change, where he coaches and advises administrators in the nonprofit organization’s leadership development program.
