But that's not the case when they inspect Miami-Dade County public schools, where they have found perilously faulty electrical wiring, broken fire alarms, poorly stored flammable chemicals and a grim host of other safety threats. Fire departments have a state mandate to inspect the schools, but no muscle to do anything more than report the violations. It's a weak law establishing a single safety standard for all Florida's schools that the Legislature should strengthen. According to reports, Miami-Dade County schools administrators have exploited this weakness by failing to maintain safe school buildings for thousands of students and employees. Schools today must accommodate more students than they were built to handle, thus safety problems are exacerbated.
Vandalism takes a toll as some students find great sport in disabling fire alarms.
The district's spokesman, Henry Fraind, insists that the most dire problems usually are fixed in 30 days. If it takes up to a month to rectify a major violation, there's no telling when fixes are made to the merely dangerous situations. Yet, according to Surfside Mayor Paul Novack, who has made fire safety a personal crusade, school district workers were paid overtime Saturday to paint fire-alarm boxes in advance of a safety inspection. School Board member Michael Krop rightly wants to know why theory isn't reality, and will seek a much-needed conference between state and local fire officials and school administrators. But if the school district continues to flout the weak law, maybe it should respond to the bite of one with teeth.