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Schools Ditching Discipline: A Parkland Parent's Warning to Fellow Parents 

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Like many parents who lost children during the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Andrew Pollack came to Washington, DC demanding answers. 

"How many schools? How many children have to get shot?" Pollack said during a meeting with the Trump administration shortly after the shooting.  

"I'm not going to sleep until it's fixed," he declared. 
  
In his book, Why Meadow Died, Pollack hopes to fulfill that promise by exposing what he calls "the most preventable mass shooting in American history." 

"You have an incompetent monitor at the front gate who says, 'I see a crazy boy get out of the car with a rifle bag.' All he had to do was call code red," Pollack says. 

"If the gates were shut my daughter lives," he continued. 

"What if when the monitor called the other monitor if he had yelled 'code red'? But no, he went and hid in a closet," he recalled. 
 
And red flags existed even before the day of the shooting. Despite a laundry list of documented behavioral issues against the eventual killer, Pollack says the school took little action. 
 
"He trespassed at the school, he could've been arrested. He threatened to shoot the school up. He should've been arrested," said Pollack. 

CBN News reached out to the Broward County School Superintendent for a response to Mr. Pollack's claims to no avail. 
  
Pollack's co-author and education expert Max Eden argues the lack of discipline, unfortunately, should come as no surprise. 
 
"In Broward County, they did a survey of all the teachers - 1,887 were surveyed. They were asked, what would happen if a student assaults you? Three teachers said the student would get arrested. Seven said the student would get a treat," said Eden. 
 
Eden maintains the policy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School became the poster child for a failed, federally led move away from suspensions and arrests. 
 
"They made it federal policy to say if you have different rates of discipline by race or disability, we will investigate you," said Eden. 

"The goal was well-meaning, but the prescription was flawed," Eden continued. 
 
Suspension rates dropped but Eden contends the result was due to teachers and principals being afraid to act, not a change in student behavior.  
  
While current US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos rescinded that policy, an issue remains, especially for civil rights advocates.  

Several government studies indicate racial and disability disparity is still a problem, with blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans subjected to much higher suspension rates.  
 
Eden argues Washington can't solve it. 

"When it comes to basic classroom order, curbing bullying, lower-level violence, I think that letting teachers make decisions that are prudent and just are the right way to go," he continued. 
 
Like most things in Washington, it's a complex trade-off with no clear winners. 

When it comes to safety, however, Pollack says parents can make the difference by being their child's best advocate, knowing the safety and discipline policies inside the schools and getting involved. 
 


 

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About The Author

Amber C.
Strong

Amber Strong joined the CBN News team in Washington, D.C., in 2014 as a producer and field producer. Currently, she works as a correspondent, producer, and backup anchor for "The Brody File." Her beat includes national politics and The White House. And while she loves her current backyard of Washington, D.C., she’s a Hoosier girl at heart. Amber lives and breathes all things entertainment and politics and has had the privilege of interviewing some of the biggest names in both industries, including late night host Jimmy Fallon and presidential contender Rick Santorum. However, her true love is