Left-wing education policies and laws, particularly regarding restrictions on disciplinary measures such as suspensions and expulsions for disruptive and violent students, increase the likelihood of school shootings, assessed Andrew Pollack, father of Meadow Jade Pollack, who was murdered during the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Pollack joined Monday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight to discuss with hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak his recently published book, Why Meadow Died: The People and Policies that Created the Parkland Shooter and Endanger America’s Students.
“This is what led to my daughter getting killed, these policies of not holding kids accountable,” said Pollack, addressing last week’s passage of SB 419 in California, which bans suspensions of willfully defiant students from kindergarten to grade eight.
“The bill that got passed, it’s illegal in the state of California to suspend or expel a disruptive child, and that just went into law,” Pollack said. “How is it going to affect them when there’s no consequence of discipline in the classroom? When the teacher has to spend 10 [or] 15 minutes per class [or] learning session on handling disruptive kids.”
LISTEN:
Pollak commented, “This bill is signed as some sort of social justice measure.”
“That ideology, for someone to think that way, it’s the exact opposite, okay?” replied Pollack. “You need to hold children accountable when they’re juveniles and teach them right from wrong so you set them up for success when they’re over 18 and adults.”
“This liberal ideology of not holding kids accountable [is not] going to work,” Pollack added.
Pollack recalled the implementation of the Obama administration’s PROMISE Program (Preventing Recidivism through Opportunities, Mentoring, Interventions, Supports & Education), which was oriented around racial and ethnic quotas for application of disciplinary measures in schools. The program’s advocates marketed it as a manifestation of “restorative justice.”
Pollack said, “In Broward County, felonies from 18 to 25 have risen since they implemented these policies. So if you’re a parent and you’re in California, you can’t put your ideology ahead of your kids’ safety.”
“These people that also implemented this stuff, they’re guilty, too,” added Pollack. “They killed my daughter. That’s what I say. It’s not just [the murderer]. They all did it. I owe it to my daughter to hold every single one of these people accountable.”
Left-wing broadening of the “special needs” category of students began to include violent and “emotionally disturbed” children, Pollack said.
“When they have a kid [who is] emotionally disturbed, and they label him ‘special needs,’ it gives them more rights, and it makes them untouchable in the school,” explained Pollack. “That’s what happened with my daughter’s murderer. He was in the school, and they labeled him ‘special needs,’ but for violence. It wasn’t like he was just a kid with a learning disability. That’s one of the horrible policies.”
Pollack went on. “Another one is this PROMISE Program, which is restorative justice, that came out with the Obama administration that wanted to end the school-to-prison pipeline, and when you think about it, in actuality, instead of ending it, it creates the school-to-prison pipeline. These liberals that put it in place, they don’t realize it, that by not holding these kids accountable, they create the school-to-prison pipeline when these kids become adults.”
Breitbart News Tonight airs Monday through Friday on SiriusXM’s Patriot channel 125 from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern (6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific).
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.