Andrew Pollack’s research into the Parkland shooter and the Broward County School District has led him to one conclusion. The Parkland tragedy could’ve and should’ve been prevented.

“A few weeks after the massacre, I asked whether the Broward school district’s disciplinary leniency policies enabled the shooter to slip through the cracks. Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie called questions like mine “fake news” because, he said, the shooter had never been referred to the school district’s PROMISE diversionary program “while in high school.” The program allows students who commit certain misdemeanors to avoid getting involved with the criminal justice system.”

What was that so-called “PROMISE” program? We wrote about it here, and Real Clear Investigations went into great detail about what a horrible program this is.

As the excerpt from Pollack’s book, “Why Meadow Died” shows, the program essentially gave the shooter the tools to escalate.

Read through the timeline the shooter’s eighth grade teacher kept. It shows a teacher doing her very best with a student who is out of control and exhibiting every sign that he is a danger to himself and everyone around him. She bluntly stated in her report for the “Functional Behavioral Analysis” that he “is a danger to the students and faculty at this school.” She also recommended that he should to be sent to a facility better equipped to handle him and his behavioral problems.

At the same time the principal informs the entire staff that the shooter was not allowed to go ANYWHERE unaccompanied. And then they came up with a plan to get him to behave. This plan:

“If Nikolas destroys property at a lower level,

Calmly let him know he has not followed one of the expectations. Remind him what he is working for.
Prompt him to use a cool down pass and walk away to diffuse [sic] the situation.

If Nikolas engages in major disruption/property destruction:

Let Nikolas know, “you’re getting too loud. I need for you to get back into control by using a cool down pass or calming down at your desk. If you get back into control, you can stay in class. If you continue, I’ll need for you leave [sic].”
Walk away and do not pay attention to his behavior.
Do not argue with Nikolas or engage with him.
When class is over, Nikolas needs to go to his next class and behavior plan should re-set with able to [sic] earn reward breaks again.”

THAT IS A PLAN??!! How’d that work out? He tried to run into traffic and kill himself, which the Westglades administrators classified as a “minor disruption” I kid you not.

Finally they sent him to Cross Creek. How well did that work out? When the school psychiatrist and the shooter’s therapist send an email to his private psychiatrist outlining their concerns. Concerns that included medication issues, and the rampant destruction he had been causing with knives and a hatchet. BIG MASSIVE RED FLAG!

Supposedly, the shooter calmed down that fall. Therefore the school district, following the guidelines of the PROMISE plan, dropped him smack dab into the middle of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Very soon he was banned from bringing a back pack to high school every day, because of the knives and bullets he’d been carrying. Even with that, the school thought it was a most excellent idea to mainstream him into two classes. One of which was JROTC. Keep in mind, even Ortiz, the Cross Creek psychiatrist bluntly stated that wasn’t a good idea, because of the shooter’s years long obsession with guns, military, and violence. But the school went ahead and did it anyway!

Broward put this MONSTER in school with my sister. We had no idea he was there. Do you know who is next to your child in school? Do you have any clue? To find out what's happening in your school, learn what happened in Meadow's. https://t.co/ShdJISrkwG

— Hunter Pollack (@PollackHunter) September 9, 2019

All of this stems from the Runcie program, now adopted in part or all by too many districts across the country. That program is one that, supposedly, wants to keep kids out of prison.

That’s all well and good. Except the PROMISE program rewards bad behavior. Destroying school property doesn’t mean a student is suspended. Carrying a weapon to school doesn’t rate a call to the police. Instead it warrants an SRO frisking kids (the shooter in this case) every single day. A student attacks another student or a teacher. The consequences? What consequences? School safety? What’s that?

But it was the gun that caused all of this!

Years ago, gun issue wasn’t a priority for me. Then, my cousin’s son got killed at #Pulse. My friend’s nephew got killed in Vegas. 17 more ppl got killed at #Parkland, 40 mins from my home. It could happen to any of us, any time, anywhere. It’s an American crisis. We need action. https://t.co/rZr5zvLc0f

— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) September 9, 2019

Yeah, that’s the ticket. Let’s blame the gun instead of blaming a Democrat-run program that ignored every single red flag thrown by the Parkland shooter. Blame the gun instead of looking hard at the failures of the Broward PROMISE program and the abject failures and dangers that the ‘school-to-prison pipeline program poses to students and teachers across the U.S.

https://twitter.com/CarpeDonktum/status/1171038990792835073

School safety absolutely SHOULD be everyone’s priority. Rewarding bad and even criminal behavior with zero consequences is the exact opposite of school safety. The gun was not the problem at Parkland, the PROMISE program was.

Feature Photo Credit: Andrew Pollack Twitter, modified