Andrew Medina, a security monitor at Parkland, Fla.’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, saw accused shooter Nikolas Cruz step onto campus the day of the massacre. Despite suspecting that something was wrong—Medina said he radioed another monitor and told him to “keep your eyes” open—Medina himself didn’t confront the shooter. Now a new report reveals that a discipline committee wanted to fire the monitor and baseball coach last year after it was alleged that he had sexually harassed two students.
One of them, Meadow Pollack, was among those who died during the massacre.
As the Sun Sentinel reported Thursday, Medina was suspended for a whopping three days following an investigation into the claims; a panel’s recommendation to fire the 39-year-old was overruled.
From the Sentinel, which obtained Medina’s disciplinary records:
Medina asked out one female student and whispered to another: “You are fine as f—-.”
“Both students became so uncomfortable with Mr. Medina’s comments and actions, they sought out different routes to their classes in an attempt to avoid him,” says the report, prepared by Robert Spence, a detective with the district’s Special Investigative Unit.
In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Meadow Pollack’s brother, Hunter, said that his sister complained to her boyfriend about Medina’s “gross behavior.”
“He would call her names like ‘gorgeous and sweetheart’ and just be a creep,” said Hunter. “And when her boyfriend confronted him about it, he threatened him, too.”
Hunter and his father, Andrew Pollack, say that they didn’t find out about Medina’s alleged behavior until after Meadow was killed.
Broward County Public Schools records show that the district’s Professional Standards Committee reviewed the harassment allegations against Medina on Oct. 4, 2017, and found probable cause that he had acted inappropriately, the Sun Sentinel reports. Officials recommended firing Medina—but a handwritten note at the bottom of the page overruled that recommendation.
“Discipline should not be termination but instead a three-day suspension,” read the note.
Medina was in the news again last week after his video testimony about the massacre circulated, with some families of the Parkland victims demanding that the monitor, who was unarmed on the day of the massacre, be fired for his lack of action.
He was transferred from Stoneman Douglas High but continues to work for the district.
Andrew Pollack told BuzzFeed News, “It’s absolutely unbelievable the level of incompetence at this district. What do you have to do to get fired at this place? Why do they keep protecting these guys?”