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I'm I'm Jonathan Kaphart and welcome to Cape Up.

Robert Runsey instituted two changes when he became the superintendent of the Broward

County Schools in 2011.

He started a new disciplinary program for troubled students, and he required all high school

and middle school students to take a debate class. Those two initiatives came into focus

on February 14th. The day Marjorie Stonman-Douglas High School became the scene of one of the

deadliest mass shootings in U.S US history, the day that gave rise to the

parkland generation.

This conversation originally took place at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen and Colorado

on June 30th.

It's been edited for content and clarity.

Robert Rundi, thank you very much for being here.

You got to the Broward County Schools in 2011?

Yes, that's correct.

So what were the schools like when you got there?

You came in from Chicago.

Yeah, it was a pretty challenging time. I came in from Chicago. Yeah, it was a pretty challenging time.

I came in nine months after a couple of board members

...