TAMPA, Fla. — Two years ago, the Florida grand jury tasked with investigating school safety problems and other issues after the Parkland mass shooting issued a scathing report about the state’s mental health care system.
“To put it bluntly,” the report said, “our mental health care ‘system’ — if one can even call it that — is a mess.”
The grand jury found “deficiencies in funding, leadership and services” within the state’s “patchwork of interlocking, often-conflicting” sources of mental health treatment. The Florida Supreme Court impaneled the grand jury in 2019 at the request of Gov. Ron DeSantis after 17 people were shot and killed the year before at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
