VOLUME 5 ISSUE 33
Primary Election $2 Aug. 20
AUGUST 16 - AUGUST 22, 2024
Find your polling location at votemarion.gov
The 2024/25 school year is on! Staff report
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Photos By Bruce Ackerman Ocala Gazette
Clockwise from top: Eddie Rocker of Kut Different, a youth mentoring program, welcomes students as they arrive on the first day of school at Howard Middle School in Ocala on Monday, August 12, 2024. School counselor Heather Howard, right, helps Jamirrah Washington, 11, a 6th grade student, find her classroom. Students arrive on the first day of school.
arion County Public Schools announced 40,202 children showed up for school on Aug. 12, which is on par with last year’s first day attendance records. However, MCPS expects 45,873 students once everyone is registered and in attendance. “Over 3,500 teachers, principals and other instructional and support staff greeted students, helped them find their classes, and began the teaching process,” according to a MCPS press release issued at the end of the first day of school. Of those teachers, 274 are brand new to working for the district. MCPS reported it still had 83 open teaching positions on the first day. Nancy Thrower, District 4 school district member and current school board chair, has experienced her share of “first days” back to school during her long teaching career. Thrower wrote in an email, “What I witnessed helping in my schools in District 4 was everyone taking that extra time, that extra step, that extra care, that extra everything to make each and every student, family and each other feel welcomed and supported.” Board member for See School, page A3
Purple Heart recipients honored The Marion County Board of County Commissioners recently honored local military veterans for meritorious service or who were wounded under combat conditions. By Andy Fillmore andy@ocalagazette.com
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ietnam War veteran and Purple Heart Award recipient F.L. Brown called Tuesday, Aug. 6, an amazing day. He was one of the recipients who were honored for their military service during the Marion County Commission meeting, one day before National Purple Heart Day. “It feels good to be recognized,” said Brown, 72, of Ocala, who was wounded while serving in the U.S. Army in 1972. Brown said he was the point man when his unit was ambushed and he was shot in the arm. Dorothy Antonelli stood with the group representing her uncle, Peter Patete, a Purple Heart recipient who died in the Korean War in 1950 and whose remains have never been found. Antonelli has steadfastly honored her family member’s loss and sought his remains. See Purple, page A2
Several Purple Heart award recipients were honored for their military service and sacrifice for their country during the Marion County Board of County Commissioners monthly meeting on Aug. 6, 2024, the day before National Purple Heart Day. [Andy Fillmore]
“Ocala Gazette” lawsuit against MCSO to be reassigned to another judge following hearing Court heard argument to release footage from Marion County Jail inmate death By Caroline Brauchler caroline@ocalagazette.com
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fter the final hearing was held Monday in the “Ocala Gazette’s” lawsuit against the Marion County Sheriff ’s Office, Circuit Judge Steven Rodgers recused himself from the case after hearing over two and a half hours of testimony and arguments. The “Gazette” seeks to obtain surveillance footage from the Marion County Jail in relation to the death of inmate Scott Whitley on Nov. 25, 2022. Whitley’s surviving family has viewed this footage and claims it shows several detention deputies using excessive force to subdue Whitley, causing his death. The court must decide whether the footage is exempt from being released as a public record under Florida Statutes §119.071(3)(a)1 and §281.301, which allow video surveillance to be shielded from the public if it would compromise the facility’s security, or whether there is good cause to release the video as a public record to serve a public interest. The “Gazette’s” case refers to the precedent of the case when news outlets successfully sued for the release of surveillance video footage of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting in Parkland for the public to understand the questionable police response. The “Gazette” wishes for the court to find that releasing the footage of Whitley’s death would serve the public’s interest, as it believes Whitley’s death is part of the larger societal problem of the treatment of the mentally ill, in and out of jail. On Tuesday morning, the “Gazette” received a notice that Rodgers would be recusing himself from considering the case any further. The case has been reassigned to Lake County Circuit Judge James Baxley. The “Gazette” seeks to verify the events that caused Whitley’s death, given the different narratives described by the Whitley family after viewing the footage and by the sheriff ’s office. MCSO claims Whitley was not compliant with deputies’ commands leading up to and during the incident that led to his death, contrary to the family’s claim that the footage shows Whitley in compliance. Over the course of the 12-minute altercation that led to Whitley’s death, the nine officers involved deployed Tasers 27 times and used pepper foam and physical force to subdue him. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. During the hearing on Monday, MCSO General Counsel Marissa Duquette See Gazette, page A4
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