florida workers. >> reporter: we got this conversation started with you on facebook earlier today. there are people on both sides of this issue. i want to break down the numbers to understand what we're talking about here. the starting salary for an fhp trooper in florida $18 an hour. that comes out to about $35,000 a year. give them a 5% raise, and that's an extra 1700 bucks in their pocket. governor scott says this is gonna affect just about 4,000 workers. people on minimum wage are making. they are making $8.05 an hour. make that $15 an hour, and it's a raise of $13,000 for 183,000 workers. that's huge. so i asked you, what is your priority? come on over.

increase or $15 an hour minimum wage. >> raise for law enforcement officers. >> reporter: why? >> reasoning behind this, first of all, because these people risk their lives to keep us all safe, and it's gonna be way more beneficial to society as a whole than a $15 minimum wage which will increase the price for everyone on the back end. >> for folks who work at mcdonald's or a minimum wage job, they can support their family better $8.05 job. that's still like 300. that's not like enough to feed like if you have family or yourself. >> reporter: which is more of a priority for you? >> absolutely. 5% more is totally the priority for the law enforcement and the guys who are keeping me safe. the other guys don't do anything to cheap safe. if they want more money, let them work for more money. >> reporter: which is more important to you?

to apply for welfare. $8.05 an hour will not pay a mortgage. >> i think that with the law enforcement, we're looking at the public sector. this is government jobs. and i think that we need these civil servants to be rewarded accordingly. but i think that the private sector needs to come more fair to employees. i mean, we see a lot of for people to work 40 hours a week and make ends meet. i think that the $15 an hour standard really would bring people up and i think actually have an economic impact on our community. >> you mentioned that the governor is interested in having a raise for about 4,000 state law enforcement officers. what about the rest of them? >> reporter: there are thousands of probation officers putting their lives on the line

they won't see any extra money in this raise. 10investigates spent the last two years exposing the problem, getting people into those probation jobs just to be able to watch the people that are coming out. >> don't even talk about caseloads. >> exactly. it's huge. so the average salary for somebody in that job same as a walmart manager. >> oh, my goodness. and walmart manager is not really putting your lives on the line and keeping track of felons. >> exactly. >>it let us know which kind of raise is more important you to. look at her face. she is just beautiful. the story behind this is heartbreaking. you don't have to be a high school student or a parent to relate to this. her parents say this girl was cyber bullied for more than a year. they tried to stop it, but 18- year-old brandy took her own life on tuesday. adding to the heartbreak, her

put the gun down, but she was determined. she said she'd come too far to come back. it was very unfortunate i had to see that. it's hard when your daughter tells you to turn around. >> he rushed home tuesday night after getting a shocking email from his daughter brandy. she sent it to their entire family telling them she was going to kill herself. there, but it was too late. >> [ crying ]. >> her family says the cyberbullying started more than a year ago. someone used brandy's picture on social media. >> continually just posting nasty things about her. set up an account where she was actually soliciting sex. >> reporter: then came the phone calls. >> sometimes she wouldn't sleep. she would call me, dad, i can't sleep. my phone keeps ringing. >> reporter: the bogus pages

they complained to police and to anyone who would listen. >> nobody was willing to help. the help never came. >> reporter: eventually, brandy had enough. >> my heart is broken. i lost my angel today. >> reporter: tonight the walls of brandy's room are covered with post-it notes. her friends leaving messages of love saying good-bye. >> now we are here. police are investigating her death as cyberbullying. when we facebook you told us you want those bullies to be punished. you asked whether brandy's school did enough. we sent 10news reporter jennifer titus to find out what you can do as a parrot if your child is a victim. >> reporter: these days kids are glued to their phones or computers. you don't know what's happening on the other side of the screen as a parent. today we learned that pinellas county school district receives reports of some sort of bullying every day that's

those reports are seen by this woman, joan ruben, the bullying prevention specialist will the school district. >> if a parent sees that their child is a victim of cyberbullying, what can they do? >> if the child is letting the parent knowing it's happening, getting screen shots, saving the information rather than deleting it at this point. then if it's something that is happening that's related to school, go online and enter it in and the going on. we have had kids suspended. kids have been told to stop and don't stop and they lose their position at the current school they are at. >> reporter: what if a parent does doesn't know their child is being bullied. the child is keeping it to themselves. is there tips for parents to monitor? >> that's a great question, too. so many times parents don't know their child necessarily is

so watch your student's behavior. how are they sleeping? how are they eating? how are they interacting with their peers? things out of the ordinary that wouldn't be typical for their child. >> reporter: we learned today that back in 2008 a bill called the jeffrey johnson stand up for all act was passed in the state of florida. it requires all districts to come up with a policy that addresses bullying. if you're a parent and your child is the victim of bullying and you n' is doing enough, call law enforcement. call us. but don't give up on getting help for your child. jennifer titus, 10news wtsp. >> i am just angry right now. whether will it stop? because now i have to tell you about another case of keyboard bullies. this is disgusting. this is grayson smith. he is 3 years old. three. he is too young to know what his parents know and what we know about the internet trolls,

turned his pictures into nasty memes. those memes are so nasty, i cannot bring myself to show them to you. aside from the fact that he is 3 years old, grayson has more than half a dozen rare and serious diseases. doctors didn't give him a week to live when he was born. he has now been through 24 brain surgeries and despite his size, he is a preschooler with a big personality. grayson's parents keep family and friends updated on facebook page. this facebook page right here called grayson's story. that's probably where the people found his pictures and turned them into trash. we are not showing out meme but listen to the caption under his picture. that face you make when your parents are actually cousins. you're disgusted. i am disgust the. you say this is part of the world we live in. come of the comments.

why? this world can be a cruel, harsh place. you don't need to look at how friends treat each other in that last election to get that figured. sandy says this unfortunately is why discretion in posting pictures is important. nothing posted is ever truly private and we collectively seem to keep forgetting that. that doesn't excuse it. douglas says, another reason why i hate people. the bad always seem to out number the good. i mean, really, what do say, reg? >> it just makes you sick. it's shocking what people think they can get away with on the internet, but something uplifting to share with you right now. a group of students making the most of a scary situation when severe weather hit atlanta yesterday. thousands of kids, they were in school. one high school went into a tornado lockdown. instead of panicking or worrying, this group of kids decided to sing a christmas song.

>> ? mary did you know that your baby boy, mary did you know that your baby boy, did you know that your when you kiss your little baby, you kissed the face of god, mary did you know, marry did you know, mary did you know,

state law enforcement officers could start getting more money if governor rick scott gets his way. here's why. we want to know which one is more important to you. a enforcement officers, or raising the national minimum wage to $15 an hour. more than half of you say it's the 5% raise for law enforcement. keep your phone on and log on to wtsp.com/votenow. your next chance to weigh in is coming up on "10news at 6." courtney. we are so lucky to be ?? outside. we have the beautiful sound.

>> december 1st. >> it is. you know what? i circled that on the calendar for you. december 1st. you know what? it feels more like june. [ laughter ] >> november 4th, the average high temperature drops down to 80 degrees and lasts for four or five days and then into the 70s. we are a month off. >> okay. >> it's kind of normally like this. every year somebody comes up to me on december 1st and says, man, this is warm. take a look at this. the degrees. going back five years, only 2011 was cooler than average at 70 degrees. 2012 it was 79. 84 last year. >> basically, stop saying it's too hot? >> no. but you should usually know it's warm on december 1st. >> you are getting a kick out of this on facebook. we did, too. you can see the snowman made out of sand.

>> that is white sand, too. it worked out. >> it's gorgeous. welcome to florida december christmas. >> i will let you know how long this lasts in a couple of minutes. we will talk about the forecast, including the weekend. cooler, but still nice for december. >> reg. >> no better place to live. all right. what's going on here? apparently this is what the christmas spirit looks like in beautiful lakeland, florida. all of these chairs lined up for tonight's christmas parade. they expect about 50,000 people over there 10news polk county newsroom reporter grady trimble shows you what all the hype is about. >> reporter: as far as the eye can see chairs are lined up and locked up, taped up and tied up. everyone's making sure they have the perfect view of lakeland's christmas parade. >> yes, there are a lot of chairs lining this parade route. >> reporter: i can't decide. do i want this spot? hmm. maybe this one? this one's pretty good, but it

before the day of the parade. >> they were popping up as early as monday. >> that's a little extreme. not really necessary for this. but if you want to, i don't have a problem with it. but it's not me. >> it's crazy sometimes trying to find a spot. >> reporter: jessica got lucky. she is taking her daughter to the parade for the first time. somehow she snagged prime real estate, even though she waited until today. >> you excited? say yay. >> reporter: the city has some ground rules. don't block sidewalks driveways, and don't put your chair up more than 24 hours before the parade. >> unfortunately, many times those rules are overlooked. >> reporter: that's why this business ropes off its property and puts up these signs. so far they are working. >> fantastic. we came out this morning and there was not one chair out. >> reporter: one thing's for sure. if christmas spirit is measured by the number of chairs lining the parade route, this city has plenty of it. in lakeland, grady trimble,

fun. we posted pictures of these chairs right there on facebook, and a lot of you are bashing the city for not enforcing the rules. they say reserving spots ruins the fun for everyone else. if you don't want to face the crowds, lakeland is also streaming the parade online. it will be a little on the cool side, lower to it's warm and muggy. december 1st. even with a little bit of spray on there, so far we are basically try. that means all the rain is out of here, guys. the front came through. it's moving through sarasota county. there is cooler, drier air behind this, and that's what's going to fill in over the next couple of days. but the rain chances really have been very, very slim. you can see the cold front on the temperature map. 67 in crystal river. new port richey is at 68. some of that is because the

but that's an idea that the front has moved through. a wind shift usually tells us that. it's 81 still in lakeland. plant city's at 79. valrico riverview 75, 77. 66 tarpon springs. clearwater 69 degrees. 76 in st. pete. those numbers are coming down. we will spend most of the evening through the 60s, and then tomorrow morning upper 50s to lower 60s, but drier all the way through. dry for that morning commute. a little bit cooler for the kids. tomorrow afternoon beautiful. 77 degrees and we will knock three, four, five degrees off of it. frontal boundary continuing to move to the south. we will keep a few clouds sarasota county tomorrow. generally friday, especially saturday and sunday, we are talking a lot of sunshine. i think saturday will be the sunniest. sunday partly cloudy in the afternoon as we get an east to southeast wind. drier air moves in for tomorrow, saturday as well, and then the humidity creeps up slowly on sunday. tuesday, look at this system coming across the gulf.

time. right now 50 to 60%. hopefully, we can hold that forecast together. there is colder air behind it. it's coming in. for most of the country, not necessarily for us. most everybody to the north is going to feel it next week. we are going to stay relatively comfortable. in fact, we are in the 70s to near 80 for the weekend. next week that chance for rain only knocks us down to the mid

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this is the biggest story of the week, and for good reason. the fires that are still burning near gatlinburg. right now crews, they are searching for survivors or more victims because people could still be trapped inside of burned buildings. dozens of families, as we have

had to run from their homes, narrowly escaping flames. >> little by little, they have been returning to get a look at whatever is left. in most cases, there is nothing. >> for one family, they found a surprise that they thought was lost forever. >> my husband was running downstairs. he was screaming, get in the car, get in the car! >> reporter: it was a narrow escape for them. the family's two cats could not be found in time to escape. when the bryants returned home on tuesday, this is what greeted them. >> we seen the devastation. we expected it but your mind can't expect it until you see it. >> reporter: we went to their home where they returned to search for their remaining missing cat. >> we got one yesterday, and we came back for him today.

he is really shocked. >> reporter: and the cat's name is awesome. >> he used to walk when he was a kitten on his behind legs. that's how he got his name because he did awesome things. >> reporter: including now surviving a wildfire. >> i was scared when it happened. i was crying. >> reporter: how do you feel now? >> good since i got my cat back. >> reporter: the bryants have lived here for five years, but had just moved into this home in june. now >> i don't even own a spoon. i don't own a toothbrush. but these babies, my family, you know, i have them, and to me i feel lucky. i don't care what was in there. i have them and i have this community. >> reporter: belongings can be replaced. it's people and pets that cannot. >> hi, baby. >> that is what we need to remember. i mean, we talked about these

destruction. but these people have nothing, but they have their families. >> they got family. they got friends.

these flames destroyed much more than a building. hopes, dreams, and a sense of community now rest in this

how businesses are getting in the game to keep the rain. and ripped off at the most somber of places. one worker is accused of stealing thousands of dollars from a customer. "10news at 6" starts right now. a tampa community devastated after a fire ripped through their neighborhood rec center. i am dion lim. >> i am reginald roundtree. what flames destroyed wasn't just a building to and kids who live nearby. the tampa bay boys and girls club was looking forward to moving in after a $2 million renovation project. they wanted to make a huge difference in the community. well, we are talking about the winston park rec center on destin drive near palm river road. no one was killed or even hurt in the fire, but as 10news reporter eric glasser shows you, this loss has left the community and neighborhood stunned.

the winston park rec center in the clair mel section of tampa. as you can see, the building is a total loss, and if you speak with the folks who live in this community, people like jose rivera, they will tell you they lost much more than brick and mortar here this morning. they lost the heart and soul of this community. >> i lived here since about 12 years old. so about 23 years i have lived here. a lot of memories, you know, growing up? yeah. so not to see, but it's just sad because, you know, they are the kids in the community, you know. they need something like this. clair mel city, a lot of the kids think that a lot of people have forgotten about them. something like this would give them hope that there is something to look forward to, you know, with everything like that. the lightning coming in here and investing in our community, that's huge, you know. this is the heartbeat of our community here. it's just sad because it's just something that these kids need