Academy Where Boy Died Is Illegal, City Says

A military academy under scrutiny after one of its students died during a camping trip in north Miami-Dade county Saturday has been operating illegally out of a church, city officials in Lauderhill, Fla., said -- even as it accepted $86,760 in state money to educate disabled students, state education department records show.

Ninth-grader Alex Cullinane, 13, would have started his first day of class at Back to Basics Christian Military Academy on Monday, but during a leadership camping trip Saturday, he woke up a drill sergeant at 3 a.m., complained he did not feel well, and collapsed on the way to the bathroom, his mother, Dena Cullinane, said the school told her.

An autopsy by the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office found no signs of injury on Alex’s body. The medical examiner is waiting for toxicology results to determine a cause of death.

Back to Basics Christian Military Academy does not have an occupational license or a special-exception use permit to run a school out of Living Word Fellowship Church. City officials Tuesday issued a cease and desist order to the school.