TALLAHASSEE, FLA. (WSVN) - A historic school safety bill has reached Gov. Rick Scott’s desk, and Florida residents are waiting to see if he will sign it.
The sweeping school safety bill narrowly passed the Senate by just one vote. It then went to the House, where it passed by a close 17 votes. Now, Gov. Rick Scott has 15 days to sign the bill into law.
“You never know until you see the votes, and I was just very happy,” said Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow Pollack was killed in the Parkland school shooting that left 17 dead. “I was very happy for myself and the other families that wanted this.”
After pleading and lobbying to legislators to pass the school safety bill, he hopes no parent will have to go through this again.
“Seventeen parents and the coach’s wife, we all came together as one to say, ‘This is it,'” said Pollack. “You know what I mean? I want to be the last father ever to bury a kid.”
Pollack and other Parkland parents said that when they came to Tallahassee, they did not have the votes. It took the entire community calling for change to get through to lawmakers.
“I want the kids to know out there that I feel their pain. My daughter died in that school, and I understand how scared you are to go back to that with everything you guys went through,” said Pollack, “but I just want you to understand that you need to focus on one thing first, and if you focus on school safety, on all these marches — we’re gonna go from Florida all the way across to California and make every school safe.”
Pollack and other parents will by meeting with Scott on Friday.
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