Associated Press by Terry Spencer
January 15, 2019
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Student and civil rights groups are suing the commission investigating the 2018 Florida high school massacre, saying it illegally adjourned a recent meeting before the public could speak and held the meeting at an inaccessible location.
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Tallahassee against the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission on behalf of March for Our Lives Florida, the Florida Student Power Network, Dream Defenders and individual students.
The SPLC said in the lawsuit that the commission violated state law when it adjourned its October meeting nearly three hours before its agenda said public comments would be heard. The lawsuit said the commissioners knew several students and others from the groups planned to comment and, by adjourning early, deprived them of their right to be heard.
Also, the SPLC said the commission violated a state law requiring that meetings be held in accessible locations by holding its October session at a resort 30 miles (nearly 50 kilometers) outside Orlando that charges up to $32 for parking and cannot be reached by public transportation.