Broward superintendent wins award for courage through Parkland shooting; victim’s father calls honor ‘reprehensible’

Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie received an award for his courage in the aftermath of the Feb. 14 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, where 17 people were killed and another 17 injured.

The Council of Great City Schools honored Runcie with the “Courage under Crisis” award at its annual conference in Baltimore on Thursday night. The council tweeted the announcement, which the Broward school district’s Twitter account shared.

“The courage you all exhibited after a tragedy and the stand that you all took after to make ensure schools become safe is absolutely amazing!” the tweet read.

Little information is available about the award online.

Andrew Pollack, the father of Meadow Pollack, who was among those killed in the shooting, shared the news from the Broward school district account.

“This award going to Robert Runcie is reprehensible,” Pollack wrote. “He has culpability in creating lenient policies in Broward Schools that cultivate criminals like the one that murdered my daughter. The award should be given to one of the MSD teachers that paid the ultimate sacrifice.”

The school district’s handling of the shooting and the events leading up to it are the subject of several lawsuits and currently under investigation by a commission appointed by the governor.

This story was originally published October 25, 2018 at 11:59 PM.