Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was killed in the 2018 Marjorie Stoneham Douglas High School shooting, offered advice to parents following the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
During an interview with IJR, Pollack explained parents can get involved locally to make a difference.
“Parents need to realize that it’s 2022. Do not send your child to a school without armed security,” Pollack said.
He added, “Parents need to get involved locally with their local school districts and push this cancer out of the education system that runs these school districts.”
The school safety activist appeared to be referring to school board members not taking safety as seriously.
He recently tweeted urging parents to find out who is serving on the school board and make sure school safety is “being taken seriously.”
Parents, it's time to get involved in your child's school.
— Andrew Pollack (@AndrewPollackFL) June 8, 2022
Find out who's on the school board.
Make sure school safety is being taken seriously. #FixIt
Additionally, during the interview, Pollack suggested parents should “get rid of these people and put like-minded people in there that take your child’s safety to the utmost level.”
The first choice for Pollack is for parents to send their children to private schools, saying they take security “to another level.”
“You don’t hear about shootings in private schools,” Pollack said.
Still, he acknowledged a lot of parents cannot afford private schools and reiterated they should get involved locally.
He noted there are “parents now speaking up throughout the whole country, you got that Moms for Liberty, you got other groups, that are really getting some momentum in this country.”
Pollack used curriculum such as critical race theory as an example of an issue that “woke up a lot of parents to get involved locally.”
Like curriculum, Pollack argued school safety should be a priority for parents.
He went on to encourage parents’ groups to push for school safety and put “the right school board members in place that think like-minded.”
According to Pollack, “Getting involved locally is more important than getting involved with who’s in the White House.”
He has made it his focus to educate parents on school safety and what they can do to cause change.
Pollack said he does “things that are achievable” and does not feel the need to debate with politicians on the issue of gun control.
He explained, “My daughter would want me to focus on things that would make a difference and that are achievable.”
In 2019, Pollack released a book titled, “Why Meadow Died: The People and Policies That Created The Parkland Shooter and Endanger America’s Students.”
Meadow Pollack was 18 when she died. She had been accepted to Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida.
In April, Pollack joined Byrna Technologies Inc as chief public safety officer.
A profile by Bloomberg says the company “operates as a non-lethal defense technology company.”
It is located in Massachusetts and focuses on “providing law enforcement and private security customers with non-lethal alternatives to firearms.”
According to a press release, Pollack “is going to be the public face of Byrna’s School Safety Program, promoting the Byrna’s School Safety Awareness Program and the Byrna Ballistipac bullet proof backpack for School Resource Officers (SROs).”
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District held its first board meeting since the shooting last week, as CNN reported.
The outlet noted parents were anxious to learn of the safety measures the district would implement following the shooting.
However, the meeting ended with no clear plans for security measures.
Angela Turner, a mother of five who lost her niece in the shooting, told reporters after the meeting, “We want answers to where the security is going to take place. This was all a joke.”
She added, “I’m so disappointed in our school district.”
Turner made it clear she would not be sending her children to school unless they feel safe. She said one of her children told her, “I don’t want to go to school. Why? To be shot?”
Turner continued, “These people will not have a job if we stand together, and we do not let our kids go here.”
According to a CBS News/YouGov survey, three in four parents of school-aged children are at least somewhat concerned about gun violence potentially taking place at their children’s school while one in three are very concerned.
The majority of parents also say their children are worried.
The poll showed large majorities of parents are in favor of having armed security guards or police present in the schools. Additionally, they favor students and staff practicing lockdowns and active shooter drills.
The poll surveyed 2,021 American adults between June 1 and 3.
