Parkland School Guard Repeatedly Harassed Under-Age Female Students

 As we reported extensively in the aftermath of the Parkland school  shooting in February, law enforcement failed on multiple levels that  day, fumbling multiple opportunities to intervene in the attack.

 Now,  months later it has been revealed that the first line of defense in the  shooting, a guard for the school named Andrew Medina, was unfit for his  position and should not have been trusted with the lives of children. Medina has been criticized for not taking proper action during the  attack, and many critics say that if he did take action, he could have  saved many lives. 

This week, new details have emerged about Medina’s  past at the school which gives an ugly glimpse into his character.  

According to the family Meadow Pollack, a young girl who died in the  shooting, 39-year-old Andrew Medina harassed a number of girls at the  school, including Meadow. Medina was reported on two separate occasions,  but no action was ever taken against him, despite the seriousness of  the allegations and the fact that there were multiple reports. 

Records obtained by The South Florida SunSentinel said that Medina propositioned one student and made a lewd comment to another in February 2017, a year before the attack. 

“Both students became so uncomfortable with Mr. Medina’s comments  and actions, they sought out different routes to their classes in an  attempt to avoid him,” the report said. 

One girl, who spoke with CBS4 anonymously, said that she experienced harassment from Medina while at school. “One time he said to me that his kids were gone for the weekend  and that he wants me to come over and he wants to buy drinks for me but I  can’t tell anyone,” the girl said, adding that, “She doesn’t have a voice anymore so I need to be that voice for her because this man should not be able to work on a school campus, period.” 

Medina does, in fact, still work for the school system. 

The Public Information Office of Broward County Public Schools sent CBS4 a statement regarding Medina, which read, in part: “The employee was investigated for alleged inappropriate comments  to students.  The final determination, after the review process, was to  uphold the finding of probable cause for inappropriate conduct from the  PSC [Professional Standards Committee]. However, the discipline was  finalized at a three-day suspension. There was no direct evidence to  distinguish between the conflicting statements provided by the students  and the employee, and there were no previous records of discipline for  the employee. Andrew Medina continues to be reassigned away  from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to a non-school work location  until further notice” 

However, according to the investigation that followed the reports  against Medina, security camera footage did confirm aspects of one of  the girl’s stories, and Medina admitted to “being a little friendly”  when interviewed about the harassment. 

So there is actually evidence  against him, it is just that his word was chosen over the students,  which is standard operating procedure in public schools. Meadow’s family is shocked that he still has his job. 

“The School Board still elects to reassign them. It’s  mind-boggling and upsetting that no one in the county has been held  accountable for what happened. Not one person has lost their job,” Meadow’s father, Andrew Pollack said. 

“They still won’t fire the guy. There is incompetence everywhere in the Broward schools,” he added. 

Sadly, lack of accountability seems to be a common problem in both  law enforcement and the school system, which allows for incompetent  people to be responsible for life and death decisions. In an interview taken after the shooting that was made public last  week, Medina said that he knew the shooter was a potential problem. 

“We had a meeting about him last year, and we said, ‘If there’s  gonna be anybody who’s gonna come to this school and shoot this school  up, it’s gonna be that kid,’” Medina said. 

Yet when the shooting began, Medina did not attempt to intervene, or  even call backup, instead he saved himself and warned a fellow  co-worker. If someone of a more qualified character was filling that  role, it is highly possible that many lives could have been saved on  that day.