Contractedded parkland shooting and endanger americas students. As a remind to those in the audience, we will be taking questions during the last 10 to 25 minutes of the electric tour and well let you know when ore opening it up and the lecture will be archived in our Speaker Series library. So when completed we encourage you to sheriff it on your social media platforms. Bill bentette identity it this the untold, unbelievable true story houston the world clubs brought by chit plately collect policy and wilful blindness made the most avoidable School Shooting in history somehow inevitable. Broward county florida was brown zero no are a new approach to school discipline, prompted by radical leftist organizations and enforced by Obama Department of education deer colleague hers. They pettled a false school to prison pipeline narratives claiming teachers and principals were systematically racist and could not be trusted to enforce rules with consequences. So instead, they argued for healing circles and Restorative Justice. As a consequence these policies enabled a psychopathic criminal to maintain a clean brown check and purchase a firearm used to murder 17 people, at marjory fillman doug loss high school on n2018. The Obama Administration forced these leniency policies into hundreds of schools serving billions of students. By way of a letter which threatened a loss of federal funding if schools were to have found racially disparate in their suspension rates. Max seeden is coauthor obook, senior fellow for education at the new york city bailed Manhattan Institute. He is a former Program Manager of the Education Policy Studies Department of the American Enterprise institute and has a ba from yale another. Andrew polack has experience in scrap metal and real estate but everything changed when his daughter meadow was murder by neck on february 14th last user now dedicates his life to making schools safe again. Founded a nonprofit, americans for childrens lives and School Safety thing accord towards ensuring the family of victims receive justice. [applause] , i i want to thank you for or coming i was never into politics before this happened. Actually the first time i voted wouldness 2016. So, i didnt when i looked all i wanted to know is, why my daughter meadow was murdered at the school. How i could bring my daughter i moved from long island and to an upper middle class neighborhood in broward, and i thought like every a parent, that the school is safe, and i didnt really look into really what was going on at the schools. Which something i live with to this day, not knowing what was going on the schools. So, february 14th was valentines day, and i was with my wife on a picnic, and thats when i got the call from my son. Should i say that. I wasnt going to do this speech ever again but it really kills me. So my son told me there was a shooting at the school. And like i didnt think anything of it. Just thought it was just maybe one incident or something happened with the Police Officer or was an accidental misfire. But as the day started regressing, it started getting worse, and the calls kept coming in and then they couldnt we couldnt find meadow all day long. So, we went from hospital to my wife worked at the hospital so we had to look i had at the going from room to room in the hospital, looking for my daughter, and we couldnt find her that day. She one in the operating room. And we gave up our search, must have been 4 00 in the afternoon and thats when we regrouped at home and i knew personally when we could not reach her by 6 00 that my daughter was murdered. And i tell everybody that i used the word murdered because thats what she was, a lot of people tell me, she passed, she died. I dont like it sugar coated. She was murdered at that school. So, within the next couple of days the media jumped on this event, and even the superintendent robert runsy was already blaming the nra, blaming guns, the sheriff, blaming guns, and to touch i just want to tell you why the sheriff the sheriff you were talking about this Restorative Justice program of leniency, not reporting crimes. These sheriffs are elected officials, and it benefits him to join these type of policies because his crime stats will look much better when he runs his commercial for sheriff when he can say he reduced crimes by 30 , but in actuality theyre just not arresting, through our investigation, the Sheriffs Department was at this murderers house 45 times without an arrest. The sheriff makes a point to say he judged his success rate by the kids he kept out of jail. So if thats the if he would have been arrested once, he would have brown would have been dinged and he would have when they tipped off the fbi it would have came up that he was a problem kid, but he had no background, no issues so, as time started going on, i needed to honor my daughter, and i wanted to find out everything that went wrong. And believe me, its in this book. Took a book, not an article that we first were going to put together. Its a book to show the magnitude of failures. And i owed it to my daughter to honor her. My daughter would want me to hold every single one accountable. And thats what im doing. Im wrecking everybody that got their hand in his. And its been a long path what we had to do, that a lot of people dont know about. We had to get a governor elected in florida. Ron desantis. Ron ran on accountability, and he stuck to his promise, and i knew he was going to do it, and i put my heart and soul into that guys campaign, and what did ron do the first week in office . He removed that piece of garbage sheriff israel from hoves and thats what that guy is youch dont know this but i know about it because i lived it and my daughters dead because of it. He changed the policy in active shooters to his deputies may go into the building. Used to read, deputies shall enter a building hitch changed his changed it on what is it the protocol, may go in. So of course, what happens . Five deputies show up, and none of them go into the building. You could hear the shots going off on their body cameras. Taking his time on his body cam, walks to the back of his car to put a vest on. When hi daughter is getting measured you hear the shots in the background, kids are getting shot and hes pulling up, putting a vest on, and doesnt go in the building. Another deputy hide behind a wall, doesnt go in. He was nine feet from the door to open the door where the killer was, and doesnt go into the building. And let everybody die. So, theres just so many failures that happened, and so ron desantis, he removed the sheriff. That was very important to me. Next thing ron does for accountability is he opens up grand jury investigation into the school board because theyre so unethical, the people. Im so damaged from living in broward, and i hate to cat gorize democrats, but i dont care no more. They hurt me more than any one imaginable. Whatever you hear them talking about the president , day in and day out, thats nothing compared to what this democrat in broward did to me and my family. None of them accept accountability. She sheriff was removed is actually running again in Broward County in 2020. And businesses are opening up fundraisers to this failed sheriff. Thats the type of people in broward. How unking the cal they and are what they do. How what they do the families and what i see and the superintendent, okay, families went to the School Board Meeting, and they wanted accountability. The asked the superintendent about this Restorative Justice policies he brought to brotherhood, and what did he say to the families . He called it reprehensible they would question him and they were called racists. For wanting accountability for their dead children. This is what the superintendent and the community did. The school board, none of dash few of them came around. I ran a School Board Race if can honestly tell you, i did everything humanly possible to try to fix this county of broward, and its just knost repairable. I ran a School Board Race to get rid of the policy, to fix the schools and who fought me at every single early voting . Is the broward teach evers union. Teachers. You know what i mean . I wanted to make it safer for the teachers. We wanted the School District safer, the teachers safer. Brothered Teachers Union fought us broward Teachers Union fought us like it was the north against the south and i had an army of people from all over the country to arent the School Board Race, but i couldnt get it done. What is ironic is, so because of these programs, these Restorative Justice programs in broward, we wanted to change it but they fought us so now about a month ago, wouldnt you know the head of the eachers union was at the School Board Meeting complaining to the district that all the teacher are getting bee up the teachers are getting assaulted, and we need to have a change in broward, and help me with the stats, max. Could you say the stats. This is the stats. So 2,000 teachers were interviewed in powered. Could you say the max. Asked what do you think would happen if a student assaults you . 2,000 teachers, 1,080 [inaudible] and seven expected to get numbers, not percentages. 39 of teachers would accept a student would assault them. [inaudible] so, what it gets crazier. I keep categorizing democrat us but at the end of it theyre all a democrat at the expend i had to teal with them. So this is the Teachers Union that fought us. This is the president now of the Teachers Union, is at the School Board Meeting, complaining that her teacher are getting beat up. Wouldnt you know that week they have a fundraiser for the sheriff, at a business, and who do you think is at the fundraiser supporting the sheriff . Broward Teachers Union president ; if you can believe it. This is just what is going on with the teachers and really its the Public School systems attack right now. California just passed a bill if anyone following education, Gavin Newsome signed into law its illegal to suspend a disruptive student. So, i dont i dont even know how it can make sense, even if youre a democrat. It cant make sense to you to put your kid in a school where they could be they can say whatever the want to teacher, act any way they want no consequence. What hurts those are the same policies that led to my daughter getting murdered, and theyre still in broward, this brotherhood, the School District, still has these policies. So when my daughter was at the school, one of the policies was they were allowed four misdemeanors per school year without ever getting introduced to the judicial system or Law Enforcement. So, one of them was which is i dont know how a parent you dont know these things. Didnt know them but im living with it now. So, they were actually i dont know the legal amount for weed i forget say its an ounce, if you had more than an ounce, it would be a felony. So in broadband county if you have 30 bags of weed in the school, and you distributing, and its less than that felony amount, they dont consider it a crime. It would be just into one of those of healing circles where they put it on the teacher. Lets put them in a healing circle, this child, and try and put a video on for him and that going to cure it. So, this i know is fact because the police, they make the police out to be the enemy, these bureaucrats that round these schools. I know as fact bus my buddies are in Law Enforcement at the schools. They have a special School Police unit who gave me those records of multiple children with with just drugs, ten bags of weed, 15 bags of weed, and they wont let them arrest the kids. That put them into that healing circle we spoke about. So, i dont know. Im just and what bothered me this week, too, is so this book is at the truth, whats in this book, regardless the media, everyone knows the people that got the attention in parkland were the gun people that wanted to say it was about the scary gun. It was the nra and if itself was that, id be up here telling you thats what it was, but like i said i was going to find out everything why and how my daughter got killed. And it was all these leniency programs of these kids, like they had to friction him before school frisk him before scoff he was so dangerous and he wasnt allowed in with a backpack. Thats how dangerous he was, threatened to shoot the school upwasnt arrested. Threatened student friday lives and never arrest. At one point his Mental Health workers wrote a letter to this psychiatrist that they were worried they couldnt find a hatchet. There was a hatchet missing in this garage and they didnt know what they should do with him. But those same councils, eight months later they recommended him to he mainstreamed into the School District with my daughter, the same people that was under his care. He from middle school he was infat waited with guns. In the book you could read the reports we got help said he wanted to kill. They hood to tie his desk down in middle school, and then at the end of the day when they mainstreamed his back into high school, the first class they put him in was jrotc where they taught him how to shoot and gave him an air rifle. Thats what is going on in the schools. So, what brings me also to say is when this first happened, my i really wanted to be the last parent that could say they lost a child in a school. But i saw that i couldnt achieve that. That was out of my hand. There was more School Shootings, santa fe, charlotte, and kids were getting killed and i couldnt be the last parent. Now i can honestly say i on two be the last parent that can say they didnt know what was going on in these schools. And that is why its important for me to get this message out. Dont what to hear it forgot a parent, i cant i believe kid was bullied, got his arm broken, cant believe the iphone was stolen i. I cant believe theyre selling drugs in he school if cant believe miskids got to sit there and twiddle his thumb is wheeling the teach are ha to deal with another kid for 20 minutes. All these things are going on and its no excuse for parents now to take it. Politics can only do so much. The president did his administration did so much for me and schools across he america but it doesnt mary what the president does help doesnt get any credit. He had the Federal School commission, he rescinded those even own era policies which meant a lot to me. They put ten months of research into it. But what does that mean . Broward county, where my daughter was murdered, its the greatest like the greatest thing since cut bread, this policy, of not disciplining kids and giving them chance after chance. Other School Districts still are going to deal with it. So, politicians can only do so much, and its on the parents now. I tell it to them. Listen, parents, you take your kid to the school bus, you drive them to the school you put them in that environment. You cant look for politicians to help you. Theyre not they cant do it at a local level when it comes to School Districts. The only people that can do anything now for the Public School system is parents and grandparents. Or else if its really doomed, the Public School system. Its just going to more segregation, i see coming, people that can afford it will send their kids to private school. Charter schools are booming. You cant get into a charter school. So, we just have to hope its on the parents and grandparents and i hope everyone would read my book, bring it to school, give it to a teacher, give it to a principal, and use it as a manual now. Thats what it is. Dont say its a book. Its a manual for parents to see what happened in broward if theyre interested in knowing the truth. And all week long i tried get on mainstream medias channels, to show them the truth, and they werent interested. Guess their viewer its not important to liberal viewers to put their kids in a safe environment and to know what is going on, and i tried. Believe me. Cnn, they cancelled on me. Msnbc, never heard back from. Abc, i shot a video for im still waiting tissue think they wasted my time. Cbs, i did a video. Wasnt important enough, childrens safety to be on one of their live shows and put me on a digital one and then trade to put me against used my clip and questioned another father that lost a kid to see if he would go against what i said. Thats what cbs did. So they t has to echannel are despickable and should be embarrassed not wanting the truth to get out. I its only parents that watch fog that though the truth but a i could have had a tent at fox between d. C. And new york and slept every one wanted to know the truth and they welcomed me on every single show, they did everything to get their listeners to really know the truth, and max is a facts. An educational policy guy. I dent know anything about this stuff but i felt the need to educate parents and get the word out, so thank you for coming, and well answer some questions, and max could speak, right . Thank you. [applause] thank you owl for cooking are its an mixed the reception to the book thus far and it was that phenomenon that let to me going down to parkland, meeting him, getting involved and kind of joining him on his mission to try to figure out why his daughter was murdered and make something good come out of it because at the very beginning, a day two days later two groups students came forward, one group immediately pointed its finning at the nra the republicans and called for background checks. Another group said, we all knew that he was going to do this. He threatened to kill us he threatened to repair us help threatened to shoot up the school. We knew it was him before it was done and this is verifiable. They sent snapchat back and forth, is it this kid, while is was happening. Those of kids didnt get much take. Featured for a couple of days and went away. I from my perch in d. C. , as a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, look at this and i thought, huh, all these kids are saying he committed these felony in school and wasnt arrested, and Broward County became famous for policy to decrease arrests. And in fact the model for the nation to fix the school to prison pipeline by lowering suspensions, expulsions and arrests. So maybe these policies had something to do with how to reconcile the apparent facts. I wrote an article posing the question and it very immediately became polarized. Some conservative media ticket as an answer. It wasnt the gun it was these obama era leaning policies and more of a question than an answer. Lib like recall media, mainstream media, quote unquote, decided that was a conservative thing and didnt need to be investigated, it should be attacked, and i dont im not overstating this because the superintendent after the news cycle started coming up in front of conservative media, responded by saying that this is fake news, because the shooter was never referred to the promise Diversionary Program nor did he commit a promise eligible offense while in high school. So anybody who can read or understand the meaning of english knows that those last three word were there for a reason, mainstream reporting dropped the last three words and took it as a category cal denial and were quite content to move on, having high schmidt kids who were yelling at republicans and bashing the nra. A couple months after i wanted to answer the question, because i didnt particularly like being called an nra shell. Want to be a serious researcher and figure out the truth. I came down to parkland, had no intention of meeting andy. He found out i was in town and texted me because anybody who he ever heard was trying to find something, he got in contact with. We wouldnt have met on my own accords, you tied me because you hard i was in town, and kind of explained to andy what i was doing, why i was doing it, and he texted me a few days later and i gave him questions to the state commission where he finds out that the state commission has had subpoena power still has not received the shooters disciplinary records, and he says max, thank you so much, going to be a great asset helping me find justice for my daughters murder. So, i came down to write an article, i didnt really fine whats wanted to write the first time, when andy said that i couldnt not come back. And the time i come back, not a random person, coming back being the guy work with meadows dad so a lot more people were willing to talk to me and i start finding out so much that it is mind boggling, staggering and i realize this has to be a book. Cant be an article because theres simply too much. I say its as though everything go wrong in American Education all collude totally this happen, and i ended up seeking leave of absence from Manhattan Institute because i couldnt not write this book and it needed to be a fulltime endeavor, and unfortunately explaining the significance over the book requires explaining the shooters life. You saw the no notoriety thing, dont say his name, its double edged sword because it also shields attention away from what went wrong and why. And so andy and i had to fight for every single biographical detail about his daughters murderer in order to figure out why his story was the way it was in order to show the story to try to make something good come out of it. And from a policy perspective there are these two joint forces that we have to simultaneously came together. One is this for youred of indicate students with disabilities in the least restrictive environments to the inclusives, which makes sense if a student is deaf, physical impair, dyslexic. Another thing when the disable is he is emotionally and behaviorally disturbed which is to say he is a crazy kid. And you look at this kids records. He was kick out of private prek. Had to be in a harness when he was in prek and elementary school. Could never last for more than a few months in elementary control . A normal clam. They tried to put him into tutors in middle school because middle and high school you only have two choices in the public system, a Normal School or a super max facility. They tried him in the Normal School. His behavior becomes so bad halfway through seventh year he is suspended every a day. An day says fixate on guns, details records his teacher takes where he just talks about guns every day that hes in the class and only in the class every other day because he is talking about guns, hes pulling the fire alarm, throwing his desk, hes jumping out from behind kids. Everybody was terrified of him at school. He required a security escort to walk from one class to another and eventually required his mother to accompany the security distorts walk from one class to another. Teachers tried to bar their door against him. And when i spoke into one staff member at westglades, when they heard of the shooting and heard it was him they didnt believe it. Not because they didnt think he would do that but because they couldnt understand how he was ever sent to Marjory Stoneman douglas high school. It took them a year to send him to the Specialized School, a full year to do something that every single adult and kid in that school knew needed to be done because in order to respect the rights of a student with disabilities, you have to go through this profoundly onerous checklist process that defies all prudent human judgment, and that makes everybody suffer. They sent him to Specialized School where as andy said his beaver was to troublesome that that therapist and psychiatrist sent a letter to his private psychiatrist at the thousands of first school year. The next year he has a couple of calm months, october to may. Hes doing better as you would hope a kid like him would do better when he is in a two to one student to adult class with superintensetive support around him. Exactly where he needed to be and was making progress. And because he was making progress they decided, lets send him to traditional school, and he is always talking about mail tearmarks wants to join the military, put him in jrotc. So they decide to main home at Stoneman Douglas for two classes, one semester, staff there we know this for effective lay fact, a little bit is he said, part of it been under depression, didnt read his records. So, they didnt really know who was coming into their school, one individual tried to object, jumped and down, waved her arms and saying the kid shouldnt come here. She was overruled. In high school with the kind of record we found in middle school doesnt exist women hear the same things hander about him in middle school, but there is no documentary evidence of it. Because by this point in time the other pressure, the leniency pressure that andy talk about, hat fully set in within the brothers county School District. So we hear these brought to the office day, comes to school in full camo, has words i hate the nword written on his backpack, brings knives to schooling, carves sauce stakes could tables. He his usual assistant principal is absent beau usover an assistant principal your judge its by how few suspensions there are. You have an absolute bureaucratic administeringtive imperative to not record things and also to not arrest kids so by the time he got in Traditional High School the system was so sick that there was nothing that could catch that pathogen. The tcell count was so low because woof andy refers to as this politically correct can sore over leniency policy combined with the disable policy that obviously we hold them entirely morally responsible but the weirdest thing you can understand why they did what they did. If one single individual in the Broward School democratic made one single responsible decision about him it could have been avoid but you cant call what happened a failure exactly because every irresponsible decision actually makes rational sense. And the reason this matters outside of parkland is because parkland became the model for the nation, brotherhood became the model for the nation, this inimportant superintendent, robert runcie, came from chicago where the used to do it for arne dung can who became obamas secretaries of education never been a teach, an i. T. Guy with a business degree, lead the sixth largest schooling district in america with a 4 billion budget, courtesy logically because his boss was the secretary of education. And arne done cass would so impressed by what was happening in broward the thought this is great. We should do this everywhere. They have the suspensions down and expulses down, arrests down. And all across the country are high rates of discipline for africanamerican students and for students with quote unquote disabilities and we know as progressive bureaucrats this is because theyre racist and this is because theyre ableists, and now we know the solution from Broward County should this should be everywhere he Obama Administration took the suite of leniency policies from broward and enshrine end them in a deer colleague letter saying to School Districts throughout the country if you have disparate rates of discipline by race or disable or anything else, were going to assume that youre discriminating. Its not if you treat a student differently, its if students of different groups get disciplined at different rates. Then well come after you and hell then to take away your federal furnishing and investigate you until youll agree to adopt all of these policies. So, from 2014 to 2019, now according to one National Survey and i think its an extremely modest estimate, 42 of american schools do this Restorative Justice stuff. I think thats on the lower side of it. And so the reason why this matters is that kind of the tag run of the book which sounds as though aid crazy fearmongerring, its true, the parkland School Shooting about the most avoidable mass murder in american history, and the policies that made it inevitable are everywhere. They fred your kids school, and is it going lead to your kid getting murdered . Probably not. Does its increase the likelihood of Mass Shootings in and outside of school . Yeah. Look at the dayton shooter, he had a kill list, rape list, never got arrested. We have a deep probable policemen in this country with disaffected angry young men who need to be tagged, who deserve to be in that socalled school too principle pipeline, who should fail a brown check because they are psychotic felons, but if we dont let juveniles get records and background checks are worthless, and this policy to reward school administrators, district administrators to not take action, increases the odds of this happening and also destroys the environment for schools. The literature on this is entirely unambiguous. Everywhere its been studied, its shown significant academic half. Teachers say this does not work. A National Poll came out, 70 of teachersed said they got these rates down of suspensions by underreporting. Sr. Pailer tolerance of misbehavior, and unreporting. You see a higher percentage of students say i dont feel safe. I dont feel respected, and these policies are spreading everywhere because they make the bureaucrats feel good and because its framed in terms of racial justice, which is to go back to a term that andy pioneered, politically correct cancer that has infect our schools. Its kind of turned against itself and is very difficult to cure because parents have limited control over it. It is set by these outside activist group who purr the agents, bureaucrats who get reward for not doing their jobs and parents dont really know and their kid gets bullied ore beat up and dont think this is because of a National Policy or because of local policy. Just think some bad stuff is happening to my kid at school. And our hope is this book wakes parents up, and the only thing that can actually change this is andy said is parenting taking action at a local level, talking to your teacher, your School Resource officer, asking about what is going on. Is the stuff we describe that happened in Marjory Stone Douglas High School happening in your school. The teacher is not going to take action. She is scared of retaliation no politician will help fix your school board. Threes be on the parent and we failed in broward so do that. Broward irirredeemable and deplorable but hopefully this book can inform points to take action in their schools to make their kid safe. Its very much analogous to the common core, and i rather hope it is, which is to say that the barack Obama Administration spread it everywhere across america worst parents or teachers consent and one day parents start to wake up, somebody explains its little built and theres a grassroots rebellen gons it and its not quite overturn its about some newell neutralized and our hope is when parents read the book theyll know what to look for and do not what they need. Do have a manual to keep their sid safe and thats how we got to this place, and as andy said, unfortunately its still only one side of the political spectrum that seems to have any interest in the facts. Parkland was according to the Associated Press the biggest story of 2018. But to them the big story was a couple of teenagers yelling at republicans. The big story wasnt why these kids got murdered and what you need to do. And some people recognize, the sun sentinel got in the Pulitzer Prize for exposing a fraction of what we have in this book but i can tell you for fact that education reporter, producer of shows seem to regard the judgment othe Pulitzer Committee in far lower esteem than which talking points do they stick to and what becomes inconvenient for what you have heard. Last thing ill say, andry goal to questions is that this is very much like chernobyl. The massive meltdown of the Nuclear Reactor in rich, series of unbelieve bulletin competent decisions that have to go together for there to be a meltdown but each unbelievable decision makes total sense if youre soviet operatic, and none of it would have been supposed if not for a couple people who stood up and made sure of it, and in soviet russia, because of the action of the scientists to tell the story to get it out there get the tapes out there they fixed their Nuclear Reactors. Theyre safer, and its remains to be seen whether or not we can do that with American Education. Thank you. [applause] we are going to take questions now for the next 15 minutes or so. But i want to start with the first question. Maybe its just sheer selfish is in on my part but i will say, as far as parental activister is concerned, for this in audience who have kids who are interested in whether or not policies like these work that your school, for the titler to i consider myself fay lincoln servant, i read the disciplinary handbook cover to cover as a direct result of this book. It really is about educating yourself on what is happening in your kids school before it ties late. So its very easy and you both identified this, to point the finger at the gun lobby. Everyone says the guns are the problem. Its an easy convenient solution. Are there other organizations, other organizations that are outside the machinery of the Education Department that you think were involved in what happened here . I know they were because im on twitter and they call me out all the time. They said theres a couple of them, a aclu, and theyre just a hosch group of people, and horrible group of people and that Southern Poverty Law Group law center. Ill tweet something and theyre all for these policies, and theyre not interested in the facts, like a lot of people. Its pretty sad because we have the facts, and the more they push these type of policies, the more theyre going to ruin Public Education, and the more segregation that there will be in is country because its happening. I met with the department of education this week, they see the pattern of charter schools, they see the pattern of private schools and home school. So if parents dont do something now about it, Public Education is just going to keel going down and like i tell parents dont do what i did think are your kid will be safe at school. Its up to you to put them in the right environment and they have no excuse to do that. Ill justed a on that. The argue. That was made but the nra could have been true if there were any policy relevant point you could point back to the nra. This nra lobbies, tries to influence policy. Its something they pushed had a connection wed be here telling you that. But what is not true of the nra is true of the southern Poverty Law Center. They use litigation, they used press releasees, they used their allies in the media to basically operate by telling School Districts you will adopt our policies or else we are going to sue you or label you as racist. And it matters absolutely not what these policies do to students. It matters absolutely not what the policy does to black students women know what they do to black students. They hurt. The it but this is how the Sovereign Poverty Law Center makes money and this is what they do to the bureaucracy and the ideology of Public Education, that pattern, the path, the pathology starts stare and infects education bureaucrats. Andy allude today this in his comments but i wanted to spell it out a little bit more. There were a series of meetings at Marjory Stoneman douglas high school. Closes door meetings, the superintendent made sure that only one School Board Member was allowed to speak because if two spoke it would have to be Public Record and then minutes would have to be taken. They call it the sunshine law. Sunshine laws, i and so its four meetings, Stoneman Douglas parents north have with the School District, a couple weeks later the superintendent holds another meeting, Public Meeting at a neighboring high school, and has his deputy email out various activist groups and i said what sea 0 closed door meetings and he have what heard rhetoric this vial since desegregation was enforced. Please come to the School District and n support your superintendent. Right . So we reached a point in Public Education where your kid can get murdered in school, and if you ask why or if you try to hold people accountable youll be called a racist and nobody will really care. And that to my mind goes back to the southern Poverty Law Center and this kind of politically correct cancer they exported and infected the School System with. Im sorry . Hi, im debra wise. Seem so, so sorry for your louse thank you for comping and sharing you story. Im actually a former juvenile prosecutor from new york and i dont know how things work in florida or other places but the really not doing the bad kid a favor either because at least in new york, the judge system unlike the juvenile systemming design to rehabilitate them and give them tharpe and help them get better. Anyway i just wanted to make that point. And they get a lot of chances as a juvenile and expunged record at the end or sealed record. So what would you suggest for parents who would you suggest they send their kids to private schools or Religious School and can i assume that those same crazy policies dont apply private schools . I got like to answer grow a couple of phases. One is dont know i dont hear School Shootings going on at private schools. They dont teal with these emotionally disturbed kids. They dont have to deal with these policies, and i made a mistake. Got to live with it. Should have sent my daughter to private. Shes be alive. Just telling you. If i raved this book two years ago, before this my daughter would be alive but i didnt touch on another person that im kind of hes on my target list, too, and he is the District Attorney in florida in broward. He is actually trying the murder case against a murderer so his name is mike sack, as been there 30 or 40 years and is trying the case, but when i started doing my research into these policies, his signature is on this Restorative Justice document, right . So i do the righteous thing and i set a meeting up with this District Attorney, and i want to know the facts. I want to take it in. So i set up a meeting with myself, my attorney, and some other parents to give. The a chance of accepting accountability for having a role in my daughter getting murdered. So what he told us was so despicable that and ill tell you, mayunder i had my lawyer with me and he says he never heard a public official Say Something what he had. So, for all the years he knew they were had this Restorative Justice program in, he knew that the School District was obstructing justice, and he didnt want to be the one to end it because he was scared they would call him a racist, and that is what he told the parents who lost not lost who had kids murdered at the school. So in any eyes this guys hes one of the part of the problem in broward, and of course he is the party that he happens to belong to this democratic party, another one, and im going to hold him accountable so youll see something in the news. I am for the Death Penalty but i cant let someone do that to my daughter not be held accountable or accept responsibility. So, parents, thats what is going on in broward, too. The da signed on to these things because he is an elected official and was afraid to call him a racist but okay for the school to obstruct justice. Now how beside the policies where are, knew what it was could go to the children, not setting them up for success. So, parents, dont get into the political stuff. You have to stay out of it. Youre responsible for your kid. These programs are going on. I dont want to hear from any parent. If couldnt fix the school board and my daughter was murdered and im not the average parent. So an average parent that has a kid, you could go look into it and then make the right decision for your child and thats what i would tell every parent and their options do whatever you got to do. I dont care what you got to do to afford it or move. Thats your options. Hes got the mic. Thank you very much for being here. And for your frankness if feel like no words are appropriate except we do grieve with you, and it hurts to hear your story. So we appreciate what youre doing and spreading the message. My question centers on some of the difficulties its seems you have and the us versus them environment it seems between parents and bureaucrats, Public School officials. So do you have some practical advice on how to get results . I know your disappointed with what happened in broward and the places but another of all kid goes to Public Schoolings and do you have some advice for parents or other people that want to try to make changes to School Boards or to other areas of Public Education, once they start asking questions, it seems like you dent get honest answers and so how can people be more effective at advocating for these policies. When i got into this, i wasnt nothing about politics. My message was, i want to make the school safer, okay . I want to harden the schools with more security i wanted security at the school. Wanted teachers safer, students safer. I got labeled for republican conservative just because if thats what theyre going to label me im okay with it. Label me republican conservative. Because i dont want to debate people. When they took out the World Trade Centers there wasnt debates of guns at the airports. And everyone lets just fix the airports. So, i just took the common sense approach. I dont want to debate for 200 years with democrats or whoever, any bureaucrat, over guns. What can we do to make the schools safe . And i got labeled. And i own up to it. Im a proud republican conservative, okay . I dont have no after dealing with the people i dealt with, im proud to be a republican. I dont really have the time or patience to deal this with those type of people but parents, i did everything human possibly to fix Broward County and i couldnt get it done. Im going to answer you like the parent, average parent, i dont know i they can fix their school board or make a difference. They can try. They can read my book and see what happened and talk to the resource officers, to the teacher, but most teachers, most of them like in broward are spineless. They get no money. They dont speak up for themselves, so i dont have tons of sympathy for. The because when we ran the School Board Race to make we ran better pay, get rid of these policies that of discipline so you can have a better work atmosphere. They were nowhere to be seen. Saw four keep teachers out of of 4,000 to help us. The parents, look into it and then you have options. Because nothing is worth like you said, 90 . Then 90 got to look into it and make hangs. They all got to get together and make a defense. Strength in numbers, or move. Charter school. Home school. Or roll the dice. You want to roll the dice every day . They roll the dice. Ill just say one more thing which is that i think schools are only the way because parents let them be this way, and the only people that education bureaucrat, School Board Members hear from are organizations like the southern Poverty Law Center, like the aclu, and its framed so nicely that how could you not . At the School Board Meeting where to a group of parents and students dime ask questions about the policies, superintendent ronesie looks a them and look at people whose friends and children were killed and said i find it ironic that folks are come their lecture is on discipline when just the other day i got a letter from the aclu and they say im not going hard enough at this stuff. Basically. A very close paraphrase if not word for word. And if those are the only people you hear from, then those are the people you listen to and we just have to hope that most School Board Members, most superintendents arent as morally and mentally challenges as the ones in broward and if a group of parents come to School Board Members and say this is unacceptable. Our kids in danger, teachers are cascades, this is bad for our kids that School Board Members just want to help run schools well, that are only told what theyre told, will hopefully take action based off of that. We have to happen. The School Board Members oar elect. The parentses could join together and make a difference. Like i said, we failed, but im not thats broward. Thats just another animal in itself. But there are communitieses where parents could get together and people will make a change within the school board. There are counties in florida where i have friends running, sheriffs, friends, and they made the changes. The schools dont participate in these programs. Theyre aware of it. Doesnt put on ideology ahead of a childs education there are districts, so parents, thats an option, too, move if you can. But when theres counties like this, the options are limited. Hi. Reporter with Cronkite News at arizona pbs. First,re pollack, my deepest condolences to you and your family. Second i was curious in arizona our new School Superintendent says we need more Mental Health counselors than School Security officers. What do you think about that . Well, when it comps to security, its multitier in florida we put in a bill for more Mental Health care. Like max said, with the Mental Health, when they group kid emotionally disturbed and label them special need, i dont think any Mental Health counselorring goes to help a kid like that in a school. He should be nut a Different School because youre subjecting all the kids that want to learn to that disruptive person. So, we have also like going hit the democrats again for you democrats talk about background checks, day in and day out up afternoon put the tv on without them talking about brown checks so theres laws in place, okay . If someone is mentally ill and violent, they need to be committed so they get a background check. Doesnt theres not too much too it. Right . Thats all it is. You want mentally ill people that are dangerous off the street, at least commit them for the full process so it goes on their backgrounds and then a background check dont work. So, background checks are useless if we dont enforce the laws to protect us as citizens, and thats background check. For me its just im just a father that lost a daughter. Im not a politician. But its easy with the Mental Health and those kid that are disturbed like that, theyre in the Public School so roll the dice, parents if you want to send them, or stand up and make a difference. Im so sorry for your loss and i feel especially bad because what both of you gentleman were saying today in terms of solutions to avoid this, ive brought up in the year 2000. If you look up my name you wont most of it has disappear off of google so you have to have a contact at the nsa or the the deep state to get it. Alzona. To the point of this, i ran for school board in Montgomery County, maryland, which has been in the news lately. Its usually in the news and whether it be justices of the Supreme Court or whatever, the i ran for school board in the year 2000, less than a year after columbine. Want on my platform was three issues, the first one, usually waste, frauds and abuse even in a very witch system which has some of the best defense lawyers in country. Defending the School System and torts committed. The second issue was the problem of drugs, prescription drugs, overmethod indicated kids in the School System, and gangs. Regardless of immigration status. The third issue was less than a year from columbine, since everything was talk but gun thursday that election year, 2000, was School Safety. I had a plan, i had some suggestions which i made on all three of those issues, but after what happened with after i became the first school bordes candidate in u. S. History to be endorsed by in the nra, it nationalized im serious nationalized the rails and i was called all kind do basically ruined my career, political career, burt it kept come backheres the point. I had kids in the school in the Montgomery County School District, like being a good nra member, taught them things like that, but basically what im saying, do you all have any other heres the question, suggestions other than what you already mentioned to sort of well, let me ask you thinks in our School District what they were doing back then was they were i think its still the policy, to mainstream mentally ill, however defined, kids, disciplinary problems, and they had a stream of lawyers to cover up for and you wont so it because theyre juveniles. Their records are buried. Serious assaults, sexual assaults, regular beat up assaults, and then now of course, its been in the news lately, we got pedophiles and crazy people, in the richest one of the richest counties so, is there anything else other than sort of red flag laws and i agree with you, the parents, parents here, even in the Public School industrial i you cant afford to leave the Public School system which i financially and i couldnt go to private schools or get out of town, then if youre stuck in a politically correct environment, are there any suggestions you ick make to parents other than running for school board or working with local Law Enforcement or federal Law Enforcement to identify these i would recommend home school. Thats what i would die. Wouldnt put my kid in an environment like that. You touched on some what i learned also but the Mental Health and medication, is my daughters murder was on folkalin and its an am feet mean and novartis was made it, and after the murder of my daughter, novartis changed the labeling on it and reads now increased homicidal ideation. So, if a kid is violent, like what happened with im not saying every kid works for 95 of probably kids on it but the violent ones, the mentally disturbed, emotionally disturbed, the punching holes in the walls, their mothers teague out, killing animals, there could be kids at these schools on that type of drug with that emotional disturbed on that type of drug, and took my tour be murdered for me to find that out and you could fact check it if you want. They changed the label. So thats what is in the Public Schools also. Is that in the become . We found that out after. Its an ongoing process because of my civil suit, so in our depositions of these people that failed my daughter, just one by one ive been getting to. The its hard to arrange for a deposition with 30 attorneys involved. It takes months. So, were going to have more. We have more records, and well expose them all. Every one that is responsible. Thank you. Max, i have a question. In your research or your awareness of the School Prison pipeline and the sort of racial quota disciplinary concept, underlying that is the assumption that the teachers are racist in applying or the School Systems or schools themselves have been they dont operate on a casebycase basis in terms of fairness and theres an underlying prejudice because you get disparate numbers, these ratios. It doesnt seem to me that modern that the teachers in Broward County are probably racist, or in many in 97 of the School Districts in america, you would find, population in general, probably more liberal. Look at the graphics of teachers. Demographics of teachers. Isnt that sort of a really terrible assumption . Do we know anything about that or we know from Academic Studies that the argument is almost entirely false. When you start to control for basic demographic background variables that would affect behavior, that the disparity shrink dramatic includes. Students from a single parent household twice as likely to be suspended, some groups more like through come from single parent households than others. When a student is sent to a Principals Office the program does in the treat them differently because academics have been able to get a fact question and you cant observe behavior credible live but you can find ways to get and its we know that theres one study that suggests that once you take into account prior student behavior, the entire Racial Disparity ceases to exist. Theres another study that looks at survey data and finds the entire disability gap ceases to exist. Theres one study that finds that there is a slight differential in teacher referrals to the office on the order of if an africanamerican student were to have an allblack teachers versus allwhite teacher would be one to two percent less likely to be sent to the office. So its not zero, but its not the explanation. Unfortunately, kind of this Political Correctness and were seeing it ever more clearly in places leak the new york times. Everything is racism racism is the explanation for everything. And then we as these progressive ideology media people, bureaucrats, government officials, have to fix racism, and it feels really grade to call somebody always racist and be the person who fictions them. And thats most of where its coming from, and unfortunately its a profoundly strong force in the people who have the levers of power. I dont really think andy and i see it maybe a little bit differently. Dont think this is a 5 5050 issue. I think this is a 973 issue and it just so happens the 3 think like this and have this power so the hope is if we show the other 97 what is really going on, they can hopefully find some way to counteract this blob. Unfortunately were going to have to wrap up for the damp although this is a conversation that could keep going. A great thanks to our two guests today. Thank you so much, andy pollack and max eden. Thank you for writing a great book. For those who are watching online, we illinois courage you go to this archived lecture at frc. Org speakers. Share it on whatever platform is available to you so the message of the book and the information in itself can get out to broadest audience possible and buy the book on amazon. Youll find yourselves tremendously enlightened and hopefully activated to be consumers of information in your own childrens school, its available only amazon, thanks gone andy pollack and max eden today. 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