FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - The Broward School Board has voted not to renew the contracts of two security monitors at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The school board reached the vote Tuesday morning, effectively leaving former school monitors Andrew Medina and David Taylor without a job as of July 1.
Medina and Taylor, who served as unarmed security guards at the school, were told not to return to campus after the district discovered they failed to stop accused shooter Nikolas Cruz and did not lock down the school in time.
It was also revealed Medina had been investigated for inappropriate conversations with students, including Meadow Pollack, one of the victims of the shooting.
Pollack’s father, Andrew Pollack, said the decision does not bring him comfort.
“I don’t listen to anything the school board says until they accept responsibility of what happened and what led up to Feb. 14,” said Pollack.
Following a decision to hire armed guards to protect schools, Superintendent Robert Runcie said the district will be ready no matter what when the new year starts this fall.
“We’re going to find ways to make it happen,” said Runcie. “It’s probably going to be a mix of strategies in the first, I would say, several weeks of the school year.”
The school board also created the new position of a district-wide safety specialist, a job that will be handled by April Schentrup, the mother of victim Carmen Schentrup.
The former middle school principal will now be a key figure going forward.
“Because of the things that happened with my daughter’s death, and knowing that I still have my other daughter in school, I want to make sure that other children continue to be safe,” said Schentrup.
A total of 17 people were killed in the Feb. 14 shooting at the Parkland school.
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