Parents trust that everyone from teacher to coaches and security guards at their child’s school will do everything in their power to keep their children safe.
So when parents from a Florida school found out the man paid to protect their kids did nothing to protect them from a tragic attack, they were understandably furious. Now, however, those parents have learned that the very same man was also accused of being a different kind of predator.
February 14, 2018
On the afternoon of February 14, 2018, the people of Parkland, Florida and the rest of the United States was yet again left devastated after a local high school became the site of 1 of the deadliest school massacres in United States History.
The Former Student
At about 2:19 on that Wednesday afternoon, a 19-year-old former student arrived at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a high school about 30 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale where he had previously been expelled from…
Inside Building 12
The 19-year-old had been carrying a duffel bag and a backpack and made a beeline toward Building 12, a building on the school’s campus containing 30 classrooms that held about 900 students and 30 teachers. After entering the building, the troubled teen set off a fire alarm.
Not A Drill
The school had held a fire drill just the day before, so when students heard the fire alarm that afternoon, they thought there was a legitimate emergency and started filing out of the classroom as quickly as possible. At the time, they didn’t realize they were walking right into a trap…
Walking Into A Trap
As students and teachers filed out of the classrooms, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz was waiting with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and began firing as former classmates and teachers entered the hallway. For the next 6 minutes, Cruz gunned down as many people as possible.
6 Minutes Later
By the end of the 6 minutes, a code red lockdown had been activated, however, Cruz dropped his gun on the 3rd floor of the building and blended in with other students fleeing Building 12. After walking off, Cruz visited a Walmart and then a McDonalds before being stopped and arrested by police at 3:40 in the afternoon…
The Victims
While Cruz was booked into the Broward County Jail, SWAT paramedics were making their way through Building 12 trying to locate survivors and save as many lives as possible. Ultimately, 14 students and 3 staff members were killed in the massacre.
The Charges
In addition to the students and staff that were murdered, another 17 were injured. Cruz has since been charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder. In the aftermath of the tragic attack, however, many parents and students demanded to know how Cruz even had the opportunity to carry out the attack…
Demanding Answers
Parents knew that the school had hired multiple security guards to protect their children and make sure the school was always secure. So after Cruz walked into the school with a semi-automatic rifle without any issue, everyone demanded to know where the guards were during the shooting.
The Truth Is Revealed
While performing an investigation, police spoke to the school security guards to get some answers. While talking to 1 of the guards, 39-year-old Andrew Medina, police found out that the people paid to protect the students literally did nothing to stop the attack…
‘He’s On A Mission’
“He’s beelining. He’s got his head down. He’s on a mission, you know. He’s on a mission,” Medina told investigators about the moment he spotted Cruz walking onto campus with a duffle bag and a backpack containing the weapon and ammunition that would be used to kill 17 innocent kids.
Not A Surprise
“I’m telling you I knew who the kid was,” Medina explained to investigators. “Because we had a meeting about him last year and we said, ‘If there’s gonna be anybody who’s gonna come to this school and shoot this school up, it’s gonna be that kid…’”
Failed To Act
Despite recognizing Cruz and noting that he was walking with a purpose, Medina failed to stop Cruz or at least activate a code red, which could have saved some lives as it would have initiated a lockdown and summoned the police before the attack even began.
The Only Warning
Instead, Medina radioed another security guard, David Taylor, to warn him that Cruz was on campus giving him enough time to hide in a janitor’s closet. As a result of his incompetence and cowardice, parents demanded that Medina be fired…
A Transfer
Rather than being fired, Medina was transferred to another school. Most parents didn’t feel it was enough, but they were glad he was no longer working at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Recently, however, it was revealed that Medina should have been fired long before the 2018 massacre.
Sexual Harassment Complaints
Recently, it was revealed that Medina was accused of sexually harassing 2 teenagers. 1 of the alleged victims was Meadow Pollack, an 18-year-old student who was murdered by Cruz during the shooting as she tried to shield another student…
An Investigation Begins
“He would call her names like ‘gorgeous and sweetheart’ and just be a creep. And when her boyfriend confronted him about it, he threatened him, too,” said Hunter Pollack, Meadow’s brother. After Meadow and the other student made complaints about Medina, the Broward County school district investigated the accusations.
Predatory Behavior
The investigation found that Medina, who was also the basketball coach, targeted the girls in the hallway, where he would make inappropriate comments or ask them to meet outside of school. “Both students became so uncomfortable with Mr. Medina’s comments and actions, they sought out different routes to their classes in an attempt to avoid him,” Robert Spence, a detective from the district’s special investigative unit, said…
Protecting The Wrong People
Ultimately, the professional standards committee found probable cause that Medina sexually harassed the students and advised he be fired. Instead, district officials decided to ignore the recommended punishment and gave him a 3-day suspension. “It’s absolutely unbelievable the level of incompetence at this district,” Andrew Pollack, Meadow’s father, said. “What do you have to do to get fired at this place? Why do they keep protecting these guys?”
A Disturbing Realization
After his daughter’s death, Andrew has become a school safety activist and only recently found out that his daughter was being sexually harassed by the very same person who failed to save her life. “What’s killing me is that he should have been terminated and he wasn’t and he was at that gate,” Andrew said. “We might have had someone who might have done something like call ‘code red’ and instead we had someone with half of a brain who did nothing. And after all this, they reassigned him somewhere else where he might act this way to other girls.”
School Guard Who Did Nothing To Stop Shooter Accused Of Being A Different Kind Of Predator is an article from: LifeDaily