The numbers of road fatalities in Palm Coast and Flagler County plummeted to 12 in 2019 compared to previous years, by some measures reaching or approaching a 20-year low despite the population doubling in that time span.
safety
Case of Student Arrested and Released After Allegedly Planning School Shooting Worries Safety Commission
In early September, law enforcement officers arrested a 15-year-old student who they say scribbled in a notebook six pages of specific and well-researched strategies to carry out a mass shooting at Baker County High School.
Zero Tolerance For Threatening Students? Not Exactly: Flagler District Enacts More Reasoned Approach
Even though one law calls for zero tolerance regarding threats on campus, another requires local districts to use a “threat assessment tool” that opposes zero tolerance and applies more careful, less drastic responses to students or anyone making threats.
Flagler Schools Quietly Dropped Controversial “Social Sentinel” Surveillance to Pilot More Targeted Alert System
The Flagler school district dropped the $18,000-a-year Social Sentinel surveillance system in April and replaced it with an entirely different approach, called CrisisGo, a crisis-management system accessible to faculty, staff and students.
Stop Criminalizing Children in the Name of School Security
The rash of zero-tolerance felony arrests of children that the Flagler school district experienced last year unjustly makes examples of adolescents in the name of a security establishment focusing on the wrong threats across the state.
For 2nd Time in 10 Months a Construction Worker Is Electrocuted By Concrete Boom in Palm Coast
Israel Hernandez, 40, was electrocuted by a “falling electrical wire” at a construction site at 31 Richmond Drive in circumstances almost identical to an incident that killed two workers on Sebastian Court last October.
House Would Toughen Driving and Texting Law But Opposes Hands-Free Only Use of Devices
Police could pull over motorists texting and driving, under a House measure, but the House opposes a Senate proposal that would allow only hands-free use of cell phones while driving.
Hands-Free Cell Use In Car May Become Requirement in Florida Under Senate Plan
The House measure matches the Senate proposal in shifting texting while driving from a “secondary” offense to a “primary” offense, but it doesn’t impose a hands-free requirement.
Lawmakers Again Float Bill To Make Texting While Driving a Primary Offense; Other Distractions Spared
Currently, police can only cite motorists for texting if they are pulled over for other reasons. By making it a primary offense, police could pull over motorists for texting behind the wheel.
Mother Faces Felony for Leaving 13-Day-Old Child and 2 Other Toddlers Unsecured in Car
Mercedes McCaster, 29, was driving on Palm Coast’s Belle Terre Parkway with four children, all of them improperly or not at all secured. Her arrests brings attention to a common safety problem.