Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - How Andrew Pollack Made Florida Schools Safer for Every Child

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

In this profoundly emotional episode of The Determined Society, host Shawn French sits down with Andrew Pollack, father of Meadow Pollack — one of the victims of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, FloridaAndrew shares his journey from unimaginable loss to relentless advocacy, turning grief into a nationwide movement for school safety, accountability, and change. He speaks candidly about the failures that led to the tragedy, the reforms Florida has implemented since, and his ongoing mission to make sure no parent endures what he has.Through moments of heartbreak and hard truth, Andy’s voice cuts through the politics and noise to remind listeners that parental involvement, training, and accountability save lives. From holding local officials responsible to designing cutting-edge safety technology, Andy’s message is clear: complacency kills — action protects.The conversation expands beyond headlines into personal conviction, faith, and leadership. Andy shares how Florida became a national model for school safety, why armed guardians and plain-clothes officers matter, and how technology is reshaping emergency response. He also exposes the systemic failures, misguided leniency policies, and lack of courage that cost innocent lives.This episode is not political — it’s personal. It’s a father’s mission to protect every child in America.Key Takeaways-Parents have the power to demand change and protect their children.-Florida leads the nation in school-safety reforms — accountability matters.-Complacency kills: “You gotta know better now.”-Accountability for law enforcement and policy leaders saves lives.-Technology and training together create real-world safety solutions.-Victims deserve action, not excuses.Connect with me :https://link.me/theshawnfrench?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaY2s9TipS1cPaEZZ9h692pnV-rlsO-lzvK6LSFGtkKZ53WvtCAYTKY7lmQ_aem_OY08g381oa759QqTr7iPGAAndrew Pollackhttps://www.instagram.com/andrewpollackfl/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The first school shooting that I can remember, it may have happened before, was Columbine. Well, after Columbine, that should have been the last freaking one. All the lawmakers, every single state, should have unified to save our children. I've watched video of my daughter getting murdered. I don't get it. There's states that are taking the police out of the schools. They think it's scary for kids to have police in the schools. You've got to have some common sense.

You want to send your kid to the school that has a no-gun zone sign on it and no police? I don't want to do with that. All right, guys, I have a good one here today. I've got Andrew Pollock as an American activist, and in 2018 on Valentine's Day, this man lived what I think all parents really, truly fear and dread in the United States of America. His daughter Meadow was one of the victims

at the Stoneman Douglas shooting out here in Florida, and this man has dedicated every second of his life to really push forward. initiative so that no other parent has to deal with this. And unfortunately, we are still having these shootings at schools and now churches, et cetera, and it needs to stop. So without further ado, I welcome Andrew Pollock to the show. How you doing, buddy? All right. Thanks for having me. You know, yesterday would have been my daughter's 26th birthday. It's every day since she's been killed, nothing really has changed the pain that I feel. I can't speak for every parent,

but it's probably one of the worst things that could happen in life is to have a child murdered, you know, and I always correct people. A lot of people say lost, you know, when you lose something, you could find it. I tell people, you know, my daughter, she was murdered. I can't find her. So it's like, I don't know, just something that hits a nerve all the time when it's lost, right? If you lose something, you can find it. But it's not a day that goes by that we all don't think about her and my family and her friends. And we miss a tremendous amount. You know, I did notice, and I was going to bring that up.

You know, I saw yesterday I was doing some more kind of research, and I saw that it was her birthday. And I was like, man, I'm talking to this man tomorrow on a day after which his daughter would have turned 26. Yeah, she was, and she was the most like me out of my three kids. She was a real go-getter. She would have had anything in life that she put her effort into. There was nothing stopping her in except nine bullets that day, you know, and no one came to help her. And, you know, you talk about these other shootings that are taking place.

Florida, I could really speak from what we got accomplished in Florida. Florida under good leadership, you know, is a big difference when you compare to other states what they're doing to what we've done in Florida. Like you always hear of Florida leads the way. We were fortunate. We had Rick Scott at the time was the governor. And I sat with him and he put a commission in. He put the Marjorie Stonman Douglas Commission in place.

It was law enforcement, lawyers, mental health counselors, parents. everyone sat on this commission and they dissected from when this thing was born that killed my daughter all the way to the day of the shooting and after the response. And they said, where can we make a difference? And we looked at all that. We went through it and we made changes in Florida where other states really aren't making the changes. You know, Texas had a terrible shooting the same year in May, May 18th. of 2018, 10 people were killed in the school in Santa Fe, Texas. And they didn't make the changes

like we did in Florida. So Florida we made, I'm not saying it can't happen in Florida, but we made, we made a lot of changes from mental health to threat assessments to police officers, to all-ming teachers and personnel in the schools, having plain-closed offices in the schools, you know, all this, the hardening of the schools, We accomplished a single-point of entries, fencing. You know, they took it serious in Florida. And these other states, you know, they just don't do it. You know, and I don't get it.

You know, it's 2025. And I look at it. I really put it on the parents, you know. A lot of the parents, you know, you know better. You know, you wouldn't go on a plane without walking through security. And there's parents now that still are sending their kids to school, with no security, no plan in place. And I call it, they're rolling the dice every day.

You roll in the dice. And like what happened a month ago in, I think it was Minnesota at that church, they rolled the dice those parents, and they lost. You know, it's very slim chance of it happening. But if you ask every parent, any parent that had this happen to them or with a shooting, they all think it couldn't happen to them. So if you either you want to roll the dice or you want to take it serious. And it's really crazy, but that's the way I look at it.

I agree. I mean, I will tell you this, Andrew, and anybody who knows me very, very well, the hardest thing for me to do every single day is drop my kids off at school. And I will say this. They're in a prep school that has bulletproof windows. All right, they have three security guards that are armed. But still, you never know. My wife is in the back of the school in the portables.

There's no security there. There's nothing there for her. So, you know, again, it's tough when I see my wife and my children go to school every day. And it haunts me to a point where there's times like when these things happen like in Minnesota or anything else. And I see these things. It puts me in a space. I'm like, damn. Like I have an emotional response to it because I don't think any parent, any parent in this

should have to worry about their child going to school and coming home. Shouldn't have to, but it's a sad, it's just a sad case of what happened. You know, the population has doubled. There's more meds. There's more crazy people. And you can't control society. And that's the way society went. So it's our obligation to make it so they're safe in school.

You know, where they could go and they know, no one's, no one can harm them in the schools. And Florida did a great job doing it. You know, we have one deputy per 500 students. That's the law Florida. You know, and like I said, we did, we made so many changes. The best, one of the best is, you know, I work with a company too. It's, we do a bunch of security. But when it comes to security, it's all layers.

It's not one fix all. You know what I mean? And you need to have a plan in place. You need to train. You can put all the technology in your school. But if you don't, if you don't practice, If you don't drill with law enforcement, get them involved, then it's useless, really. And, you know, Florida takes it serious, but it took 17 people getting killed.

And then you see these other places, you know, they go to school, really, and there's no police at the school. You're sending your kid. It's like, it doesn't even make sense. You know, I'm doing work in D.C., you know, getting things done in the country and working with different legislators and stuff. But I was at the DOE, Department of Education. I'm meeting with one of the top lawyers there about two months ago. And I asked him, so what's at your kid's school? Because he read my book and we're talking.

He goes, you know, I'm embarrassed to tell you. I don't even know if there's police at my daughter's school. Could you imagine? And I'm like, you're kidding me, right? I said, well, I can't believe it. I go, well, it's serious. You know what I'm saying? You're rolling a dice.

That's it. You want to roll the dice every day with your kids? Then roll them, you know. You got to know better now. I didn't know, you know, in 2018, I didn't know the school board stuff. I did, you know, I should have been, I lived in Parkland. It was, it's route. It's the safest city. It's ranked in the state of Florida. But I didn't know anything. You know what I mean? And look what happened to me. But, but I, we've been preaching, you know, that it's happened. Parents can't say they don't know anymore about keeping their kids safe. You know, you know what's going on at your kid's school. Parents, if they get involved, there's nothing stronger than parents getting involved in putting in the right school board members or getting involved in going up to the school and saying we want this. You know, parents have the power to make change. Why do you think? And, you know, you alluded to it earlier about other states not putting in proper measures like Florida has, taking that action to protect the children. We can just assume why, right? But in your opinion, why would a certain state not see what's going on

and want to insulate as much as they humanly can to protect these children? I don't get it. You know, a lot of them, listen, there's states that are taking the police out of the schools. That makes no freaking sense. You know, they think it's scary for kids to have police in the schools. But I put it on the parents. I don't care what party you belong to. You know, you can't be, you got to have some comments.

in sense, you know, even if, you know, Democrats don't have that. But you got to think that, listen, you want your kid to go to school where there's police officers, right? And so it's on them. They send them, you want to send your kid to the school that has a no gun zone sign on it and no police? I want to do that. You know, there's schools in Florida. I know because I went to the training. They have the Guardian program in Florida, which is really good. They'll put anyone who wants to volunteer, they'll put them through this program, and it's very vigorous. You know, they're held to a high standard to pass this guardian, and they're able to be playing clothes in the school. I don't think there's been, I don't think there's been a shooting at a school where teachers went through this

program and there's unarmed. I mean, there's armed undercover in the school. You know, it makes a big difference when you put a sign there. We're going to defend our children, you know, with deadly force. When you put that sign there, we've read these manifestos from these shooters, these cowards. They write it. They picked the school that has no security.

They picked the school they went during the day because they were worried there could be a parent there that had concealed carry. You know, it's in there. It's what they write. They're cowards. They want to go to a place where no one's going to shoot back.

And I don't get it, you know what I mean? But it's on the parents in these other states. You want to send your kids here, I can't beat my head again. I can only beat my head against the wall so many times telling them what you need. You know, I've watched video of my daughter getting murdered. I've watched videos of shootings.

We try and make a difference and educate. You know, I'm all over the country speaking at different security events. You know, a lot of technologies going into the security. And my company, we try and do it. We try and take human error out of it with technology. Because I learned under distressed, you can't expect someone to go to their phone, swipe it, punch in a code, and do all these things when bullets. They're hearing bullets. Most of them are shaking.

So I talk about things that can make a difference in life and with response. But, you know, it's up to the districts and the parents, you know. And, you know, you want to send your kid to a school like where you send your children. You don't want a school that's a no-gun zone. And I still. and I still worry. I mean, Andy, it still scares me daily to a point where I'm getting ready for this interview today and I'm thinking, you know, I'm going to have this conversation. Meanwhile, my three children and my wife are going to school.

And I know what they have at the place that they're at. But to me, still, it still isn't enough. I would, listen, I'm one of those crazy people. I would love to see special ops at every interest and every exit. Like, I would love that. I would give the crossing guards. I'd let them go through that. If they could go through that guardian class, I'd arm them also.

You know, anyone who could go, you know, if they're held to a higher standard of accuracy at the end of the class when they're shooting, then to the deputies that are on patrol. They have to hit targets, you know, at a tighter group than a deputy taking the class. So I'm all for it, and I went through it. My friend, everyone in Florida heard of them, good friends. with Sheriff Grady Judd, he wrote the curriculum for the Guardian program

and it's implemented in a lot of schools. Not all of them. They're all worried, oh, we're going to arm the teachers, but you're not arming teachers. You're arming people that want to go through the program. If you're not making anyone go through it, you don't want to go through it, don't do it.

But if you want to go through this program, that's intense, I think they should get a little more money for me, if you ask me from the state. But if you want to go through this program, we're going to make it available for you. And when you get out of that, when you get out of that program, you're going to be ready, you know. Yeah.

And that's only one part of it, Sean. You know, what happened in Florida wasn't, it was a total failure that we saw. And we made a lot of the changes. So we did it on the security side, you know, with making changes. And then we did it on the policy. You know, in Broward, we had that superintendent that came from Chicago. and he brought these leniency policies to Florida into Broward County where he was saying that African-American children were getting arrested and expelled and suspended more than any

of the other students. So he brought programs in to not hold kids accountable. You know, rather than try and help these kids and set them up for success, he said, you know, there must be racism in Broward County. so let's change all these policies, and they stopped holding kids accountable. You know, no suspensions, no arrests, no, they weren't getting expelled. They put them through a program. What we learned when my daughter was in school, the kids were allowed three misdemeanors

per school year without ever getting introduced to law enforcement. They could sell weed, they can assault the teacher, assault the students, steal an iPhone, and then it would reset every year. They could do another three misdemeanors the next year and never get introduced to law enforcement. That's not even real life. Hold on. That's not even real life. You go on the street.

You go on the street. I'm an adult. I have a misdemeanor. I'm going to jail. Not in Browen. Not when he came there. And we changed it. But this created a very unsafe environment of teachers getting assaulted, kids getting assaulted.

The teachers didn't even report anything because it was useless because it would go up the chain and the kids would be back in school. You know, they're back in class like the next day. So he brought those policies into Broward. So think about it. So the superintendent comes in. He can say the first year he reduced suspensions and arrests by like 70%. It was a miracle.

It's just this fake liberal mentality of saying, oh yeah, I'm doing a great job, but they just stopped reporting it, right? And then they get the sheriff's on, the sheriff signs on because he's an elected official. He could say he reduced crime in minors by 50 percent because they just stop arresting. You know, they're putting them through this program. So he's a hero to the people. Oh, wow, look at this sheriff. He reduced crime by 50 percent.

And the superintendent, he reduced suspensions and, and, he reduced suspensions and, and, kids getting expelled by 70%. He must be doing something right. But we uncovered all this, and we made, that sheriff was removed from office, from the governor of Sanchez. The super, people don't read

about these things. They heard about the sheriff, but the superintendent was arrested on felony perjury charges. So I held a lot of these people accountable after my daughter, she wanted me to do that. So I

held them all accountable and I pretty much wrecked that whole county. You know, we dissected them. You know, four school board members were removed from office also. The media doesn't ever want to report on that kind of stuff. It just doesn't make any sense to me, Andy. I mean, to be, to be honest, like I'm at a loss right now because to me, the first one, the first school shooting that I can remember, it may have happened before was Columbine. I was in college and that happened and then shortly after that it was a movie theater incident and that was kind of like in my conscious mind that was the start of it right but i could go back and say well after columbine that should have been the last one that should have been the last freaking one there shouldn't even be

one but the fact that it happened that should have been it every all the lawmakers every single state should have unified to save our children to save innocent children they're going to school for an education and they have to worry. I just, it, it, it fires me up to a point where it, it makes me lose respect for the states and the policymakers that aren't doing enough to save kids. And then they'll say they don't have the funds, which is baloney, you know what I mean? It's all. But yes, they have the funds.

They just, they don't put it in the right place, you know, they got money to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, have a brand new football stadium, right? But then they won't have nothing. There's no security, you know, and then you talk, even at private, that private school, it really irked me. They didn't have any security there. You're telling me the parents can afford another couple hundred dollars tuition so they could have a police officer. And then you look at the school, where's the parents going to send their children to school? Do they want to see them safe with police? You charge a little more money. How do you not, what's the parent going to say? I'm not, I don't want to have a police officer there. Most of them are going to go with it, but they don't, you know, they don't

take it serious in these other states. My temple in Florida, I, you're going to, there's no way anyone's going there. You know what I mean? I know as a fact what I gave them in the training and how serious they take it that they're going to go down the street to the liberal temple. Because where they don't have all the guards and the police and the rifles. You know, I made sure that my temple is secured, but I want to, if there's anyone listening from these temples and churches, so this last week was a couple of Jewish holidays, I went and I was on the road. I had to be somewhere, but I went to the shawls. So the first one I went to was in Spokane, Washington. You know, I get it, these rabbis, they don't know security. They're hiring details, right? And the guy's

sitting in his car the whole time out in the drive. I go, I told the rabbi, I go, listen, you're paying these guys. Don't leave him. He's sitting in his car. What is he going to do sitting in his car? He's just going to take the first few shots. That's it. Make sure they're at front.

You know, they don't want to sit, get a stool by the front door. The next place I went to was, uh, where I don't know, it was trying to think. I'm all over the place all the time. I went to another one, right? I can't believe I can't think where the hell I was Oh, New Orleans. There you go. I was in New Orleans for a security conference And the guy sitting in the lobby on his phone You know what I mean? So if anyone's listening and they work at these places or they have a detail

Speak up. You're paying for the detail. There's you know, there's nothing more that irks me than a guy in an uniform or sitting there on his phone when he's supposed to be doing security. You know, so you got to speak up. That's something I'm going to be working on the next month to get the word out to these places of worship. You know, they think that they can trust his security. That's sitting on his phone, I couldn't believe it, on his phone on the chair in the lobby. Like he's going to, like, what are you going to do?

So you can have these details, but you got to speak up, everybody and make sure they're doing the right thing. Don't take it in, you know, I carry. I go, whatever I go anywhere, I'm carrying just for my own protection, and to be able to save people. I don't want, you know what I mean? I don't want to sit there and have people just cringing. I want to be able to, you know, if someone's coming in there, I'm going to, we're shooting back. So everyone should, you know, concealed carry is a great thing.

But speak up at these, what churches and details, if you see guys sit and go talk to the pastor, go talk to the rabbi, and make sure they're doing their job properly, you know, not like what I saw the last two over the last couple of weeks. Yeah, that's just blatant complacency. Yeah, I don't like it. I don't like it when I see that's scary. That's scary. And the pastors and the rabbis that, you know, they think they're professionals. They're telling, they know what they're doing, but they're getting lazy. So you got to speak up. And that's something I'm going to address in the next with my company and being in, being in some religious groups that I'm at, having them speak up for their congregation.

I mean, now's the time. I mean, you know, you look at a month ago in Minneapolis, you know, at the Catholic school, and then last, what was it last week at a morning? Michigan, can you believe it? The Mormons, really? My friend's a Mormon. I love the guy, Ryan Petty. He carries everywhere.

He can't figure out somebody's Mormons that they don't want, they don't take the security. Yeah, that's serious, you know. They don't even want him carrying. when he goes to temple, I think they call it the emorments. You got to God takes care of those who take care of themselves. That's what I tell them. You know, you got to, you owe it to yourself and your congregation to take your security. You know, I go to a place out here and when I go to Oregon.

We've got security, you know, and they're not sitting on their ass either. You got to be, you got to have your head on a swivel and speak up and whether's listening. That brings up a good question. great question for you. And I'm not coming at anybody. I've just things that I've observed, right? So when my children were in public school, they would have one deputy, right? And the deputy just kind of seemed like they weren't really around doing much. It was like, you know, if there's a school, if there's like a little event in the auditorium, they're in the auditorium, why aren't they manning, why aren't they manning the front? Why, I mean, so my question is, is,

it's not just enough to have someone on campus, is it? They have to be... Not one. You know what I mean? One's not good. You know what I mean? It should be one in Florida. One per 500.

But that's why I preach that you need on the plane clothes, too. You don't want someone coming into the school or anyone, your church, a building. You know, he's a sitting target. If you just have one, he's dead first. You know, if they really want to do damage, you know, they're going to take out the deputy in uniform or if it's someone that knows the school or the church, they could come right behind him. They know where he is all the time. He's an easy target. That's why undercover with our guardian program, those not knowing, that's a big deterrent. Like, you know, people think,

oh, you know, it's not the proper security, but a deterrent will never know how many people, how many lives we save in Florida, just because they're not going to go to, schools where we have guardians or where we have one deputy for 500 and we have protocols in place. So we're saving lives, but we don't know how many because it's just a deterrent. And like I said before, you could read it in the manifesto when these cowards pick where they pick. They pick it because it's a no-gun zone. We know like, I don't know the percentages.

It's a high percentage of mass shootings that take place and no-gun zones. Let's dive into that, right? Because most parents in your situation would lean to the side of gun control. You don't, right? You believe in concealed carry. You believe in protecting. You believe in having the Guardian program. You know, what would you say to those people that are so against guns, but then kids are dying and even to a point where doesn't matter, gun control, right? Like, how do you speak to somebody like that? Because, you Because, you know, everybody wants to talk about it. Gun control this. Gun control that. And I don't know the answer. I'm not in this space. I'm just a parent that has three beautiful children.

But I want guns on my campus. You know what I'm saying? I want that. No, I know exactly what you're saying. You know, you can preach so much. It's like a kind of a mental illness, you know? Like, really? Like, you think that if you put a no guns

own sign at the fence leading into the school that the criminal's not going to go in there. They're going there on purpose because there's no one that's going to shoot back. It makes it worse. It's an invitation to evil to come into this building. It's an invitation. And I watch videos of it. You know, the guy that killed the thing that killed my daughter, reloaded like seven times inside the building and there was no one there to shoot back.

you know the one deputy hid 40 minutes he was in front of the building never went in and there was another five or six of them that took a perimeter around the building and didn't go in why kids were getting killed so i i oppose the no-gun zones it's the biggest you know i i don't it doesn't even make sense to me it's not even a discussion you know because they're going to they're going to go in that's where they pick it you know i was in new warrants it was interesting And I went to the World War II Museum, which is a pretty cool place. And they had metal detectors. And I'm like, oh, shit, I have my concealed carry.

But I said my wife did a recon first. She went in. He said, no problem. All you got to do is show your ID and your concealed carry license. I went in. And that was it, right through the metal detector. And it just shows, you know, if you look at statistics, people that have concealed carry a law-abiding

citizens. You want those people in your place of business. You know, they're not committing crimes. I don't want to ever commit a crime. I don't want to lose my permit. You know, everyone's the same way. We're law-abiding citizens. You want people with the licenses. So I thought that was a nice surprise.

I was like, ah, these guys aren't going to let me in the museum. And no problem. I went in. I showed him my ID. And that was that. So it's a safer place. And we're going to take a quick break to hear from our Powered by sponsor. We're proud to announce a partnership between White Sands,

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it's bringing hope, resources, and healing to those who need it most. White Sands Treatment Centers. That's comforting. You know, when you talked about Parkland just a second ago, and you talked about that incident where the shooter reloaded seven times, there was six deputies out there on the perimeter, and the one in the front scared to go in. I remember that, right?

And so it's crazy because the more, more you and I chat, the more I remember about this, this tragedy. And I remember being so effing angry that that deputy, it was, it was very well documented that he was scared. It's like, wait a second, what about the children? What about Meadow? What about the 14 others that are in there? I mean, Meadow was heroic that day. She was hit one time, went and covered a freshman, and then the shooter reload and hit and shot seven more times. The bullets went through my daughter and killed the girl underneath. And this guy is with a bulletproof vest.

Who's to, you know, he would have had a clear shot at him on the second floor. Because on the second floor, everyone shut their doors and the blinds. So the killer walked on the set right through the second floor. Who knows? You know, most of these guys are cowards. They either surrender or kill themselves. They don't even get into a firefight. You rarely see a firefight.

They're always killing themselves or running away or they just put their hands up. So we'll never know. He retired. You know, I think he gets about $110,000 a year pension, Peterson, Deputy Peterson. He was brought up on charges, but the state barely didn't do a good job in his case, I feel. Do you believe he should still get that pension? Yeah, he gets his pension. If we got him,

my question is, though, do you believe he should? No. Because I don't think so. I don't think so. He should be in prison, you know what I mean? 1,000%.

I don't know how he didn't just hang himself, the guy after he did what he did, you know? But you know what? He repeated this lie over and over again. You know, you lie to yourself over and over again. You start to believe it. So he believed there was a sniper on the roof. There was no sniper on the roof.

We have recordings, you know, we have recordings. He's telling people not to go in the building. He's worried about traffic. He was worried about traffic why kids were getting killed, you know, inside the building. And he just wasn't, he was never going in that building, this guy. He went when we deposed him, when we deposed him in my case, you know, because we have a wrongful debt case going on.

He showed up with a Bible to the deposition, you know. I go, dude, that Bible isn't going to help you for not coming clean. are you allowing my daughter and all those other kids to get killed? Well, you sat there and saved yourself by a brick wall. So, yeah, he was there with his Bible. I don't really care for the guy that much. I don't like him. There was another bunch of deputies.

They lost their jobs. The sheriff got removed. You know, it was a lot of work getting everything done. But a lot of it, I couldn't have got done if I didn't help get Governor DeSantis elected. He was a real pit bull. in my corner and he helped he put that grand jury into effect to look into all the failures in Broward he removed the sheriff you know from his duties put in another guy that's doing a fantastic job at Broward right now got the sheriff Tony he's doing a great job in Broward it's a tough county

it's a tough county to be a sheriff in but he's doing a great job you know like I said We removed a bunch of people from offices. We changed policy. We held everybody accountable. And that's all, you know, I could have done really for my daughter and told those people accountable that failed that day. It's just heartbreaking to hear that there were seven trained professionals not entering the building while Meadow was the one being heroic. Yeah, a couple went in. You know, there was a couple of guys that worked at the school that went in.

And just to show you that, like so they went in. But with radios, if any of them went in the building, these not many people talk about it, but I'll talk about it. They got killed. But if they would have just said code red on their radio, my daughter would be alive on the dirt floor. You know, and they had radios. One guy hit in the closet on the second floor, you know,

the monitor, they called the monitors back then. That's what they were. Security guard slash monitor. So one guy saw the guy, He pulled up in an Uber, the shooter, and got out with a rifle bag. The guy doesn't call Code Red. And his nickname's Crazy Boy. He sees the rifle bag.

He doesn't call Code Red, you know, and locked the school down. Kids would have, you know, would have been a different ending to the story if he would have done that. The deputy who hit at the wall doesn't call Code Red. Two guys that go in the building that got killed, they could have called Code Red. They didn't call it. So it's just a total failure. You know, sure they went in, on all, got killed. But so we developed, I have a company, we have a, you know, like an access card that people have, they swipe.

We have an access card and it has a panic button built into it. So all you have to do, a teacher or in a church, a temple, a building, if something goes down, you can just press the button. and it'll go, it'll notify police. It has your fingerprint on it, you know, so it knows it's coming from where you're at. It'll map first responders right into the person who hit that button, and it'll let the whole building know that there's an emergency and put it into a lockdown mode. So we developed that. Yeah, we developed that after I've seen all these failures where, you know,

people have apps. There's no shot. Someone's going to go to their phone. and open up their phone and go to an app and do all that, you know. So we just made it where there's a button and it'll do mapping for them. And it'll push video to first responders on their way to the building. They can see it on their cell phones or on their computer in the car. They could see what's going on.

And then after Yvaldi, Yvaldi pissed me the hell off when they didn't go in the building. They let them kids get killed. The door wasn't even locked. You know, it was all bullshit. they said it was locked it wasn't locked and so now we came up with something that goes in the classroom and when there's an emergency it has a shutter you know the teachers union they're all they don't want cameras in the classroom they we don't they don't want to show you what's going on in classrooms all right so we got around that i have a device that goes in a classroom and it has a

shutter on it so only in an emergency the shutter all open and it'll give first responders access and eyes into the classroom. So we're always working on stuff after, you know, we dissect things where we can make a difference and save lives. And that's what we do with my company. It's great to hear because a couple of years, I don't know who was last year or the year before. There was a lockdown at the public school my kids were at.

And it was a scary freaking moment, man. Like, as a father, I'm sitting there. I get the email. the text message and I'm like, oh my God, I started walking out to my truck. I'm like, I got, you know, I don't know who I am or what I'm going to do, but I got to go save my kids. And it was a false alarm. Apparently one of the teachers hit the, hit the button on their ID card. So that's your company. Yeah, when we have it, we program it different. So really, like, it's got to be like you can program it twice for the nurse, three times for police. You know,

we have this button and it really, I know it's going to work because people won't react the way you think they're going to react. You got to have, you know, you got to make it as simple as possible for a lockdown. And then at your school, if they have this stuff and they're not bringing in law enforcement to train with them, then it's a waste of money. You know what I mean? In a situation, in a panic, no one's going to know what to do. But if you train for it, you know, like athletes, police, they're always training on a monthly base. or daily basis, you got to bring in the police and train with law enforcement. And I tell people, so on the third floor, when my daughter was killed, there was one teacher

that participated in training with law enforcement. Like they went to the school and they did a lockdown, they did what to do, they did, like she heard noise, they had blanks, they were banging and yelling. So this teacher did training with Carl Springs PD. So when she heard what was going on, she was familiar. She goes, wow. So she locked down her classroom, shut the blinds. They put all the kids on that one wall.

That's a safe zone. You know, no one could see into the room or shoot through the door. And she saved her whole classroom. My daughter's teacher heard the fire alarms, ignored the 90 rounds that went off. You know, if you ever heard an AR, it's a loud round. 90 rounds go off. She decides that there's a fire in a, and a, cement building and puts my daughter into the hallway because she heard the fire alarm where

she got shot nine times and then but but she locked her out too after she heard more shots she shut the door and locked it so no one could get back in and and she got shot in the closet what the hell what happened to that teacher after that incident oh she got a graze on her arm she ended up getting a million dollars in a lawsuit that teacher that put those kids out into the classroom. But I don't know. Can you blame? She didn't have all the training. She wasn't that bright because my daughter in her text, she had like a couple of texts to her boyfriend and she said she heard gunshots. But the teacher put her out into the hallway, you know, because of the fire alarm. And I don't think there hasn't been anyone that died in

a school from a fire since maybe the 60s, you know. That's a wild. That's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's wild. to me. How do you ignore 90 rounds and send a child out there into the hallway? My daughter heard the rounds. You know what I mean? The teacher had to hear it. But she let the kids out into the hallway where she got killed. And then she couldn't even get back in.

So it was just a big cluster of shit. What a scary moment. Multiple failures. Like there could have been, God could have intervened a lot of times. And my daughter could have been alive, you know, from the person. at the gate.

There's, you know, so there's a school next door to it too, okay? There's a middle school right there on the same, you know, on the same property a little bit, I don't know, a few hundred yards to the west. There's a middle school. That day, that deputy was at training that would have been there. You know, he goes to training three times a year. So could you imagine my luck, even that deputy, who was a solid, guy was at training on the other side of town he couldn't even be at the school and they didn't fill

him in with another guy so there was no one at the school or that day that was right next door that could have been there once he heard him on the radio he said he told me andy i i can't even believe it like he had to i think he retired after that just because he was so upset he wasn't at the school that day he was at some bullshit training so there's a lot of things that happen and failures that my daughter like it was like a domino's effect of failures that she could have been saved at any time but it didn't happen that day that's really difficult you know just even hearing that it i can't imagine the things that you and your family have gone through just playing that over and over my daughter would be here meta would be here if if if something's so easy as if that jackass

teacher didn't send her out into the hallway. Yeah, but that was already the 10th. If she couldn't, there was 10 before that, you know, with the guard at the Uber driver. Really, you pick up a kid with a rifle bag in the middle of the day and you drive them to the school. The Uber driver would a rifle. Cabellus, it said Cabellus on it, a rifle bag. And then the monitor seeing Crazy Boy was his nickname.

And we have it. They're like speaking like they said. had a meeting to security a year prior and they said if anyone was going to shoot the school up it's going to be this kid and we have them all talking about it and he doesn't call a code red you know the deputy that don't call the code red hides at the building doesn't go in then there's a there's a guy too on the second floor he seized the shooter on the first floor you know you're talking now a 40 50 year old grown man sees the shooter on the first floor runs back up the second floor and hides in a closet and does and he has his radio doesn't say

code red or call the principal or anything saves himself in a closet when the shoot is on the first wall so you know it's just and then the guys that go in that don't call the code red and then the deputies that don't go in there's just you know so many failures the school not even you know the school they frisked this guy every morning before school that's how bad this kid was and they didn't tell the parents. Really, you're sending a kid to the school. You're so worried about him being dangerous that you've got to frisk him. And you think if my daughter's, you know what I mean?

My daughter's safe in the school and all these other kids. With a kid, you've got to frisk. What, given that situation with the deputies and everything that you're talking about, is there certain psychological tests that Florida's putting them through to know that, like, if this happens, you're not going to freeze. up. Yeah, well, they put him through tests and it's leadership too. You know what I mean? Lead by example. My friend who is the sheriff in Florida, it's not going to be on his watch again. He won't tolerate it. You know, and it's leadership, what you expected these guys and go and the training.

You give him the tools, but you want the right guy. You know, Sheriff Grady Judd, I was there when he was doing the, the Guardian program training, right? And he came and he came and he. he spoke to want the cadets. You know, there was probably like 20, 30 people there. He goes, he goes, when you, when you're in that school and someone comes to hurt one of our kids or children, I want you to shoot them graveyard dead. That's what he tells me. And if you can't shoot them graveyard dead, there's the door right there.

This job's not for you. And that's what he told them. And, you know, giving them the right tools. You know, I have another friend in Bradford. that was training these guardians and they do it right into school. You know,

right in the school they're training. You know, there's a lunch lady. That's a custodian. You know, it's amazing. They go through this training and they're there. And the shooter's not going to go to one of those schools knowing that,

you know what? I don't know who's in there carrying. Yeah. You know, I feel like Carmine, Marseino's done a good job in Lee County with this. You know, there's metal detectors at the public schools. You know, he's in a lot of the private schools.

You know, this specific school that my kids go to, it's a private security. But, I mean, I think there's three people. Yeah. My temple, just to show you, there was one, they could get one police officer or two security guards. We opted for the two security guards that are trained, rather than just having one police officers. So it could be the same. You know, you better, like I said,

one is not enough, you know, to have out of school. You know, it's just he could shit the bed. You never know in a situation. Or he'd get killed first. You know, he's a sitting target when you're in a uniform. So one is definitely not enough. Plain clothes is better. Given everything that's going on,

it seems that, you know, they're not so few and far between anymore. Andy, it seems like every time I open up my Instagram app or look at the news, there's another incident at a campus. You know, just even on, what was it? I think September 11th, there was an open, wasn't there a shooter on the Naval Academy? There's an active shooter at the Naval Academy. And what about that building in the building in Manhattan, too? They didn't know. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

They had that a few months ago, too, you know, I mean. It's just, it's wild to me. given everything going on, is Florida doing any more to revamp some of these systems and processes and adding? Because I love the fact that my children are safer in Florida. Florida doesn't take anything for granted. They really, they double down when they have to. You know, they got that Wild West mentality about them, which I absolutely adore, to be quite honest with you.

Yeah. Are they doing- We got the best governor in the country, you know what I mean? Ron is a friend of mine and he did a great, he's doing a great job for Florida. You know, a lot of people don't notice because, you know, it just came up again because it is Charlie Kirk getting assassinated. So with the death penalty in Utah, it has to be unanimous, okay, to get the death penalty. So Florida, here's my daughter's case, it was unanimous.

He killed 17 people on video and he didn't get the death penalty. right, because one person felt sorry for him or two. So Florida changed the law after my daughter's trial to majority. So it's something Utah should have thinking about. But even, you know, a lot, you know, I can talk a lot about the death penalty. It's really the death penalty isn't a deterrent for these evil people because it's 20, it could be 20-something years until you could get killed, you know, in the death penalty, if you even happen and appeal it, it could be over 20 years.

You get put in a certain cell when you're on death row. I looked into all this. Death row, you get a cell, you get your own security, your computer, your TV. You don't have to work in the penitentiary. You don't have to work. They bring you your medication. So it's almost like the warden was telling me. It's almost like a hotel room they're getting, you know, when they're on death row.

So I didn't really, with my daughter's case, I really didn't get involved with that trial. I didn't even attend one day. I didn't even take any interest in it because I knew they weren't going to get it. And I'd rather them get life without parole. You know, it's torturous, you know, being there. And hopefully he gets put into general population and he gets dealt with one day. But that death row is not terrible. You know what I mean?

And if the debt penalty was okay, we got the death penalty and then you kill him within six months. that would be like a deterrent, you know, and you put it on TV, just like they put Charlie Kirk's murder getting on TV. It was brutal watching that. You want a deterrent? Put these killers on, let them beg for mercy, and put them on the internet. It'll be a deterrent. I know it sounds barbaric, but it wasn't,

how many times did you see Charlie get killed that? And what about the girl on the train? That was horrible, right? The girl on the train? So take these evil people and put them on the internet. You know, show them, show them begging for their lives. And I think things could change a little bit. I think it would be a deterrent.

Right now it's no deterrent to death penalty to these evil people. Yeah, I mean, they're pretty much already dead, man. I mean, there's nothing behind their eyes, their souls gone. And they get tricked. I'm telling you, I researched it before my daughter's case. I wanted to know what was worse. The death penalty, getting the death penalty, or life without parole? And I spoke to like two or three wardens, and they told the Andy, life without parole is worse for these people.

They're begging for death after a certain amount of years. They wanted to put the death. Like I said, they got their own hotel room when they're on death row. Unbelievable, man. Well, look, I appreciate you coming on and sharing your story, Meadow's story. And it's comforting to know that you. You spend time in a state and you're heavily invested in my children's safety, so I don't have to live with the unfortunate tragedy that you have to live with every day, along with 17 other sets of parents. It's just it's heartbreaking, man, and I just appreciate you.

Thanks, man. And I could tell you my good friend Ryan Petty, whose daughter was killed, Elena, he sits on the Florida, the state school board. and he's the chair for the school board right now. So they're doing everything possible. They still meet the commission on school safety for Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. They still get together and they're always looking for ways to make our kids safer. And holding counties accountable that don't do it. That's the thing, you know.

You got to hold people accountable or things don't change. Agreed, agreed. For the audience, I want you guys to share this episode with, someone you know love and trust that could get value out of it. And just if you are not in Florida and you have children in public school without law enforcement, let me ask you a question. Is it scarier to have people with armed, armed people on your campus or someone armed coming into the campus and potentially killing one of your children? I hate to say it like that, guys, but we live in a world where you just can't trust what's happening out there in society. In our job,

as parents is to protect our children. So please think about it. If you don't want to be a part of a headline or see another child or children shot and killed, then we have to do what's right and put safety measures in every single school across the United States of America. It's not about budget. It's not about resources. We have it. It's about what you spend the money on, just like anything in life. You could sit there, you say, I can't afford it. You can't afford a new car, but you're spending $350 a month at Starbucks. Your money goes where your focus is and what you hold value towards. So parents, this is a call to action to protect the children. I thank you guys so much for listening again. Andy, thank you so much for coming on and sharing

with me and your audience and for the audience. Until next time, stay determined.