Principal Speaks On Closure Of Military Academy

Back To basics Military Academy Had No Occupational License, City Claims

A 13-Year-Old Academy Student Died During An Orientation Camp-out

Art Barron
Reporting

(CBS4 News) LAUDERHILL A military school operating in a Lauderhill church which has been under scrutiny for the death of a teenage student during a camping trip last weekend was shut down Tuesday, after city officials found the school had no legal license to operate.

Back To Basics Military Academy, operated by principal Lynda Browne in space leased from the Living Word Community Church, was ordered close by city officials after it was discovered the school had not obtained a city occupational license. However, the school's principal, Lynda Browne, said they thought they were operating within the law.

"We felt that we sent through the proper protocol," said Browne. "The pastor of the church had a license which he felt that was appropriate for us to operate under."

The school had operated in the church for one year, and began its second school year Monday. Lauderhill code enforcement supervisor Jim Notarianni told CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald, “They can’t operate…they are done here.”

The closure on the second day of school is the second problem for the military academy in the past week. Early Saturday morning, a 13-year-old student who was beginning his first year at the school died after collapsing while being taken to the bathroom, in the middle of the night, by a 15 year old ‘squad leader’. The students were on a weekend orientation campout at Oleta River State Park in North Miami.

13-year-old Alex Cullinane died after paramedics took him to Parkway Regional Medical Center. An autopsy has been done to determine how he died, but the squad leader who was with him believes Alex was dehydrated. Other campers and a “junior Drill Instructor” told CBS4 news that the teen had refused food and water earlier in the day, and that the campers had run relay races earlier in the day.

Alex’s mother told CBS4 while she grieved for her son, she didn’t blame anyone for his death and said she believed it was “God’s will.”

One parent told The Herald, “This is a big mess,” and said she didn’t understand what was being done.

Browne’s husband Reginald, a director of the academy, has a history of problems with the State of Florida. The Herald reports in Wednesday’s editions that in 1991, the state ordered Reginald Browne to stop referring to himself as a psychologist since he wasn’t licensed in Florida.

4 years later, Reginald Browne was fired as CEO of Family Life Institute for Counseling, Education and Research, an agency that counseled at-risk youths, amid allegations of financial mismanagement.

Broward County and the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice revoked grants to Family Life Institute after investigations claimed funds had been misused.

The camping experience in which Alex took part was organized by Juvenile Military Training and Leadership Corp; an organization that Reginald Brown told The Herald was a subcontractor to the school.

However, The Herald found public records show the company’s business address is the same as the Brownes’ home in Plantation Gardens.

The military is not state certified, and took students from elementary through high school. Most of the students in the school receive vouchers for students with disabilities. Culinane’s mother said she sent her son to the school to help him improve his physical fitness.

Cullinane says she does not plan a funeral service for her son.

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