Stoneman Douglas Guard Had Been Suspended For Harassing Female Students
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PARKLAND (CBSMiami/AP) — A campus safety monitor at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was investigated for sexually harassing students last year but he avoided losing his job and was suspended instead because of a decision by the Broward School District, according to a report in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
And the family of Meadow Pollack, who was murdered on the Stoneman Douglas campus, tells CBS 4 News that she was one of the students
harassed by Andrew Medina.
The South Florida SunSentinel reported Thursday that 39-year-old Andrew Medina was suspended for three days after an investigation corroborated allegations by two female students.
Records obtained by the paper say Medina asked one student out and made a lewd comment to another in February 2017, a year before the attack that left 17 dead.
The students' ages were not released.
The father and brother of Meadow Pollack, who was murdered in the shooting, say Meadow was one of the girls sexually harassed by Medina.
Hunter Pollack spoke to CBS4 over FaceTime.
He addressed the issue regarding his sister, which he says he and his father only recently learned about.
"If I knew at the time, he would have been fired right away," Pollack said of Medina. "It's very unacceptable that the school board allowed this pervert to say stuff to my sister and other girls."
Pollack also wonders if Medina had been fired over the incidents, maybe a different campus safety monitor would have called for a code red or taken other actions to stop Nikolas Cruz, both of which Medina failed to do.
"I think it's politically incorrect that they didn't fire him because if they did, maybe they would have had someone competent to stop [Cruz] from getting on the campus," Pollack said.
A teen who says Medina harassed her on campus in 2017 spoke to CBS 4 News about her encounter with Medina.
"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. She asked that we not identify her.
The former student says Medina once promised to come into the restaurant where she worked.
"He was like, 'I'm gonna come in so I can flirt with you. It's gonna be off campus so I can finally flirt with you so I won't get in trouble,'" she recalled him saying. It bothered her so much that she called out the entire weekend of work. She said she told her father and officials at the school and spoke to School District investigators about the case. She said she was shocked that Medina was back working on campus the following year. She says she's speaking up because Meadow cannot.
"She doesn't have a voice any more so I need to be that voice for her because this man should not be able to work on a school campus, period," the teen said.
A disciplinary panel recommended in October that Medina be fired, but the district instead suspended him.
Medina spotted shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz entering campus on Feb. 14 and recognized him as a potentially dangerous former student, but didn't stop him.
Medina still works for the school district but has been transferred out of Stoneman Douglas.
Andrew Pollack told CBS 4 News that his ex-wife knew of the issue with his daughter and Medina but he did not. He said that he believes there would've been a different outcome for Medina had he been aware of the issue. Pollack said we haven't heard the last from him on the Medina issue and he's seeking accountability for this and a myriad of other issues related to the shooting and it's aftermath.
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"
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)