Unlicensed
academy closes doors after student death
The principal of a Lauderhill Christian
military academy wouldn't discuss the future of her school after
city officials found it lacked an occupational license.
August 16, 2006
By AMY SHERMAN AND TODD WRIGHT
asherman@MiamiHerald.com
A Christian military academy that has
come under scrutiny after a student died shut down Tuesday after
Lauderhill officials discovered that it was breaking the law.
Back to Basics Military Academy never
applied for an occupational license to start a school inside the
Living Word Community Church at 5770 W. Oakland Park Blvd.
''They can't operate,'' said Jim
Notarianni, Lauderhill code enforcement supervisor, who gave the
academy and the church a notice of violation Tuesday. ``They are
done here.''
Principal Lynda Browne would not
comment about the school's next steps -- shaking her head when a
reporter asked if she wanted to let parents know where they should
take their kids today.
''Oh boy. I tell you this is a big
mess,'' said one parent who did not want her name used for fear of
repercussions for her son who attends the school. ``I don't
understand what they are doing.''
Losing its quarters is the latest
crisis for the private school, which opened last year.
Early Saturday, a 13-year-old
Plantation boy collapsed and died after a day of marching and
exercising on a beach with 32 other students attending a school
orientation at Oleta River State Park in North Miami.
Although the cause of death won't be
known for several days, some students said Alex Cullinane hadn't
been eating or drinking.
The school directors have come under
scrutiny since Cullinane's death.
In 1991, the state ordered Reginald
Browne -- now an academy director and husband of principal Lynda
Browne -- to stop referring to himself as a psychologist since he
wasn't licensed in Florida.
In 1995, Reginald Browne was fired
amid allegations of financial mismanagement from his job as CEO of
Family Life Institute for Counseling, Education and Research, an
agency that counseled at-risk youths.
GROUP HOME
His wife and son, Reginald Browne
Jr., also worked at the institute, which ran a group home in
Lauderhill.
Broward County and the Florida
Department of Juvenile Justice revoked grants to the institute after
investigations concluded that money had been misused.
On Monday, Reginald Browne tried to
distance the academy from a subcontractor, Juvenile Military
Training and Leadership Corp., which, he said, ran the outdoor camp.
State business records show a
Juvenile Military Boot Camp Inc. with the same address as the
Brownes' home in Plantation Gardens.
But there was something about the
military-style Christian school that appealed to Dena Cullinane,
Alex's mother.
School officials told her if a
student wouldn't get out of bed in the morning, the academy would
send a drill sergeant to the home. Students had to wear military
uniforms and shave their heads.
Cullinane planned to have her only
child, an ''A'' student, start there this week. But before, she
wanted him to get a taste of what it would be like so she sent him
to the four-day camp sponsored by the academy.
His father died of cancer when Alex
was 1 year old.
''My whole life focused around him,''
she said, referring to her son. ``It's like a big hole. My faith is
being tested everyday.''
Alex previously attended Plantation's
Community Christian Academy, which closed.
The school referred Alex to the
military academy.
The for-profit school served 19
students in grades 5 through 10 last year, according to state
education records. Most of the children receive vouchers for
students with disabilities.
Cullinane, a massage therapist, chose
the school because she thought it would help her son improve his
physical fitness, but she said her ''husky'' son never took to the
idea. Alex was gifted academically but not in athletics, she said.
CHRISTIAN VALUES
The Brownes stressed to Cullinane
that the school's core goals were to promote Christian values. They
told her a teacher and drill sergeant attended each class.
''I wanted to be there for him,''
Cullinane said. ``I have no regrets as a mother, just that I wish it
was a little longer and that he wasn't taken from me.''
Cullinane said Monday she will
cremate her son and had no plans for a funeral service.
Miami Herald staff writers Matthew I.
Pinzur and Carol Marbin Miller contributed to this article.
|
