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Parkland Dad Sparks Backlash After Saying Parents Are Responsible For Protecting Kids From School Shootings
A father of one of the 17 murdered victims of the 2018 Parkland school shooting sparked an angry backlash after saying in a Fox News interview it is parents' responsibility to keep their children safe from school gunmen.
Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow died in the shooting, made the comments to Fox News' host Laura Ingraham just hours after the Tuesday school shooting in Uvalde, Texas in which 19 elementary school students and two teachers were murdered.
Pollack—who helped pass legislation in Florida to allow schools to have more guns on site—told Ingraham parents must do their due diligence to ensure the school their children attend is safe.
See his comments below.
Fox guest says it's parent's responsibility to ensure they don't send their kids to a school that's easy to shoot up pic.twitter.com/22Kd0KRiQp
— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) May 25, 2022
After Ingraham commented on the lack of precautions at schools like "an intercom or bullet-proof glass," Pollack said:
"It’s the parents, it’s your responsibility where you send your children to school."
"You have to know now after these shootings, and every week there’s a shooting, whether it's a school or a supermarket, that you need to check where your kids go to school."
Pollack went on to describe the sorts of precautions parents should be looking for.
"You need to go back to the school and see, is there a single point of entry? Do you have guards at the school?"
Pollack also claimed he hears from parents all the time who have chosen to put their children in private schools because they take security "way more serious."
On their face Pollack's recommendations seem perfectly reasonable, but they are the polar opposite of effective according to a wealth of studies.
Not only have mental health experts warned armed guards in schools negatively impact students emotionally, they have also been shown definitively to increase violence in schools and raise death counts in shooting incidents.
And while private schools may have better security, the overwhelming majority of parents cannot afford to pay the exorbitant tuition fees to send their children to private schools where security is better funded.
Pollack's politics of personal responsibility also ignore the most glaring fact of all—the United States which has the most lax gun-safety laws of any developed country in the world—is the only place on Earth where school shootings happen with regularity.
The 2018 Parkland shooting in which Pollack's daughter died sparked such a groundswell toward gun control measures it even put a a dent in the National Rifle Association's influence on politics for the first time in years.
But Pollack was not among the parents who joined that groundswell.
Instead, he was advocating for more guns in schools so vocally he was invited to the White House by former Republican President Donald Trump, an honor not extended to other families—not even the family of a staff member who was killed when he made himself a human shield to protect students.
Taken together, Pollack's comments left many people disgusted.
Noted. As I sat up all night trying to figure out if I should go ahead and try to pull out hundreds of thousands in loans to send my child to a private school where she might be slightly more protected vs. at a public school. Thank you for putting this on us.
-a single mom.
— Hope Lawrence (@hopelawrencia) May 25, 2022
Explains a lot: https://t.co/EAmaeM6sNt
— Zachary Ament (@zach13090) May 25, 2022
Hey everybody I'm getting a lot of credit for advising parents to check that their school simply has enough crossbow units up on the turrets at all times.
— Pete Bernardin (@BernardinPete) May 25, 2022
Someone had his number. Thought to call him immediately after children died. Others agreed. And put him in front of a camera. And broadcast it. And people watched. In between commercials. And everyone made money off of it.
— RobbieX (@RobbieUSANL) May 25, 2022
Any school is easy to shoot up if you have an assault Rifle and body armor. https://t.co/VgCHXLgy5f
— NewDemocrat4Life (@reesetheone1) May 25, 2022
AYFKM? It's harder to buy Sudafed than it is to get a gun.
perhaps we should institute the same policy for guns that we have for over-the-counter meds. Max 3 per month. Must show ID. You're listed in a database so they can track the purchases. https://t.co/U1Tf3I4W9A
— KMG365 ☕ 🥀 🐝 (@starbucksgirl51) May 25, 2022
You realize they pre-script this stuff, right? They know mass killings will happen, and that it's going to shine a light on the deregulation of guns by GOP officials and media.
There's a "post-massacre, divert attention from guns" hymnal, and they're all singing from it. https://t.co/Qsr28ohIq4
— biwah 🇺🇲🇺🇦 (@biwah) May 25, 2022
PARDON?!?!?!?! https://t.co/PeXZfsKCfa
— Mouais... Bof 🧡 (aka "MB Fletcher") (@mmmouaisbof) May 25, 2022
"Is there a single point of entry? Do you have guards at the school?"
Even by its own lights this position is silly—why stop at the school level? How about, "Is the school located in a country awash with easily available guns?" https://t.co/0h1jUWNtpI
— J.D. Blanchard, doctor of philosophy of philosophy (@philoshua) May 25, 2022
"What were those kids wearing that caused this?" https://t.co/HBKQJhRAzx
— Darth_Spurious (@Darth_Spurious) May 25, 2022
In his Fox News appearance, Pollack wasted no time criticizing the Uvalde school district either, questioning whether the district had "learned anything" from the death of his daughter.