Why Meadow Died: The People and Policies That Created The Parkland Shooter and Endanger America's Students

Otherground
#1

I don’t recall who recommended this, but I’m nearly done reading it. I was fortunate enough to get a copy from my local public library.

I strongly recommend it for anyone looking to get beyond the simplistic, sloganeering, bumper sticker nonsense that get parroted anytime there’s a school shooting. I presume that the dangers that the authors point out have only gotten worse.

If you have kids, it behooves you to read this. It will not be an easy read; you will be upset and enraged, but I would encourage you to to do so.

Thanks again to whomever recommended this to the OG years ago.

4 Likes
#2

Cliff’s?

#3

I don’t want to spoil the book, but I’ll try and do the best I can. Hope that’s fair.

Multiple school policies not only prevented teachers from taking disciplinary action, but arguably helped to create the shooter (roughly 1/3 of the book just deals with this)

Refusal of school officials to upgrade various systems, despite having money in the budget earmarked for upgrades that would have helped minimize any loss of life.

Multiple law enforcement failures that could have prevented or reduced the number of students killed by the shooter.

School Board officials that refused to acknowledge policy failures and in many cases actively attempted to smear anyone questioning bad policies.

Law enforcement officials refusing to be held accountable for gross failures that resulted in the loss of life.

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#4

Haven’t read, but this is how I look at the situation. It was a failure of multiple systems and way too convenient for those same systems and people to avoid any and all blame.

#5

A grieving parent understandably gets sucked into a whirlpool of blame.

#6

I recommended it. Andy Pollack is a very close friend and I ran for School Board.

#7

You are not correct. This isn’t about simply blaming others. Every single thing presented in the book is backed up by legitimate documents. Look at the footnotes every document is a bailable for you to see for yourself. The system and the people really did create that situation.

#8

I didn’t say it was solely about that, nor did I question anybody’s academic integrity. Just giving my opinion of what the book is really about on the whole.

I am sympathetic but don’t agree with all the conclusions & don’t think the grieving activist is where we’ll find the answers, anymore than we did with, say, the Brady Bill or the Patriot Act. That’s not the place to get reasoned pragmatism. Best case is that you get a perspective on the one situation but little that applies to what we should be doing differently as a society.

#9

I hope that you never have an experience that makes you look back on that statement and think differently. When something happens in your own backyard, as they say, it changes your views and challenges your beliefs. You are viewing this issues from the comfort of an emotional remove. The recommended changes to school policy are pragmatic, unobtrusive, and merely promote the expectation that people will be held accountable for their professional shortcomings. To this day, not a single Board Member, nor the Superintendent, has ever publicly acknowledged that they are sorry for the losses of the children or adults who were murdered that day.

#10

Thank you so much for recommending it. It was a great, albeit very f******* scary read.
Are you still “up to date” on the situation in Broward County? Have things gotten better?

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#11

Yes, absolutely. We agree. That’s where I believe pragmatism lies. I do not want you making policy based on my opinions of events I can’t emotionally distance from. That’s one of the ways we end up with lousy policy.

#12

Again, I am sympathetic. That’s a separate issue.

#13

It might be helpful to the discussion if you detail what policy recommendations you don’t agree with. As it stands, I could see how your comments until now could (mistakenly, I assume) be interpreted as complete dismissal

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#14

Things are worse.

#15

I was afraid of that.

#16

Daring use of semicolon and comma in a three clause sentence. Bravo!

#17

Glad the fbi is taking a lot of time to arrest people that were let in to the capitol building jan 6th.

#18

me fail english? that’s unpossible!

#19

If it interests you, pick up Columbine by Dave Cullen. It was a very interesting read.