Parkland parents running for school board

Two parents whose daughters were killed in the February school shooting in Parkland, Fla., are running for two seats on the county school board.

Lori Alhadeff and Ryan Petty, whose daughters Alyssa Alhadeff and Alaina Petty were two of the 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, are running to bring “accountability and transparency” to the board, they told Politico.

Alhadeff said that she does not want her daughter’s “life to be in vain.”

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“I’m doing this because I don’t want another parent to go through the pain and anguish that I have to go through every day,” she said. “I don’t want any child to have to say to their mom, ‘Mommy, am I going to die today if I go to school?’ ”

“It is my duty to make sure these schools are safe,” she added. “And the only way I’m going to do that is if I get on the school board to make those decisions and make those changes.”

The Broward County School Board represents the nation’s sixth-largest school district. Alhadeff is running for a seat based in Parkland, while Petty is running for a county-wide seat.

Petty has been working with other Parkland parents and lobbied to state lawmakers to pass the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, a bill that would implement several statewide gun control measures including raising the purchasing age limit to 21.

“If I get elected to the school board, I can be part of making sure the law gets implemented,” Petty told Politico. “I felt an obligation to work on this legislation to honor my daughter and make sure this never happens again.”

Both campaigns are linked to Broward Parents for Better and Safer Schools, a political action committee led by Democratic consultants that was set up after the shooting.