By: Robert Davis
Anthony Borges was shot five times protecting 20 classmates from Nikolas Cruz’s rampage that left 17 people dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Yet the 15-year-old hasn’t joined some of his fellow classmates in demanding gun control. Instead, Borges is calling for changes to how at-risk students are dealt with.
Borges sent a letter to Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Superintendent Robert Runcie telling them, “Both of you failed us students, teachers, and parents alike on so many levels.”
Borges spent seven weeks in a Fort Lauderdale hospital recovering from his injuries. His attorney, Alex Arreaza, read his letter during a press conference in Plantation, Florida last week.
“I want to ask you today to please end your policy and agreement that you will not arrest people committing crimes in our schools,” the letter read. “I want all of us to move forward to end the environment that allowed people like Nikolas Cruz to fall through the cracks.”
“Borges, too weak to talk, sat silently in a wheelchair with his right leg propped up,” CBS reported. “His statement specifically attacked the Promise program, a school district and sheriff office initiative that allows students who commit minor crimes on campus to avoid arrest if they complete rehabilitation. Runcie has said shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz, a former Stoneman Douglas student, was never in the program, but Borges and his attorney, Alex Arreaza, said school and sheriff’s officials knew Cruz was dangerous.”
A woman called the FBI tip-line a month before the shooting and reported Cruz’s erratic, violent behavior. The Broward County police were called to Cruz’s house dozens of times in the years leading up to the shooting.
“You knew he was a problem years ago and you did nothing,” Arreaza read from the letter. “He should have never been in school with us. I ask you today to make the commitment to protect the students and teachers and provide a safe learning environment.”
Robert Davis is a journalist from Colorado. He covers defensive gun use and Second Amendment litigation for Gunpowder Magazine. Contact him at [email protected].
Photo Credit: Shutterstock