Widow of Florida massacre victim elected to school board

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The widow of a teacher killed in the 2018 Florida high school massacre has won election Tuesday to that county’s school board, joining the mother of a slain student.

Debra Hixon, the widow of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School athletic director Chris Hixon, easily won election to the nine-member Broward County school board. She joins Lori Alhadeff, whose 14-year-old daughter Alyssa also died in the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting. Fourteen students and three staff members were killed.

Debra Hixon is a longtime educator. She currently runs a maritime technology and marine science program at a suburban Fort Lauderdale high school. Her husband died trying to confront the shooter, a former Stoneman Douglas student.

She and her son Corey appeared in a campaign commercial supporting Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The commercial used video from Biden comforting Stoneman Douglas survivors in 2018. Corey, who has a developmental disability, runs after Biden as he is leaving and they embrace. Biden kisses Corey on the forehead and comforts him.