Andrew Pollack, whose 18-year-old daughter Meadow Jade Pollack was killed last week in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, delivered a powerful speech Wednesday to President Trump during a listening session on school safety at the White House.
"There should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it," he said. "And I'm pissed. Because my daughter — I'm not going to see her again. She's not here."
Pollack's image went viral when he was photographed wearing a "Trump 2020" shirt by a Palm Beach Post reporter while looking for his daughter immediately after the shooting. He has not commented on his political affiliation and a Snopes Fact Check page has been set up to contradict reports by right-wing media that he is being attacked on social media by "leftists" while mourning his daughter.
Here are Pollack's full remarks to President Trump:
I'm here because my daughter has no voice. She was murdered last week and she was taken from us. Shot nine times on the third floor.
We as a country failed our children. This shouldn't happen.
We go to the airport — I can't get on a plane with a bottle of water, but we leave some animal to walk into a school and shoot our children. It is just not right.
We need to come together as a country and work on what is important, and that's protecting our children in the schools. That's the only thing that matters right now. Everyone has to come together and not think about different laws. We need to come together as a country, not different parties, and figure out how we protect the schools.
It's simple. It's not difficult. We protect airports. We protect concerts. Stadiums. Embassies. The Department of Education that I walked into today that has a security guard in the elevator. How do you think that makes me feel? In the elevator they got a security guard.
I'm very angry that this happened. Because it keeps happening. 9/11 happened once. And they fix everything.
How many schools, how many children have to get shot? It stops here with this administration and me. I'm not going to sleep until it is fixed. And Mr. President, we're going to fix it. Because I'm going to fix it. I'm not going to rest.
My boys need live with this. I want everyone to see this. You, you look at this. Me, I'm a man, but to see your children go through this, to bury their sister. That's why I keep saying this, because I want it to sink in.
We can't forget about it. All these school shootings, it doesn't make sense.
Fix it. There should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it.
And I'm pissed. Because my daughter — I'm not going to see again. She's not here. She's not here. She's in North Lauderdale, at whatever it is, King David Cemetery, that's where I go to see my kid now.
That's where it stops, we all work together and come up with the right idea, school safety. It is not about gun laws. That is another fight, another battle. Let's fix the schools and then you guys can battle it out whatever you want. But we need our children safe.
Monday, tomorrow, whatever day it is, kids go to school. Do you think everyone's kids are safe?
I didn't think it was going to happen to me. If I knew that, I would have been at the school every day if I knew it was that dangerous. Work with the president and fixed schools. That's it. No other discussions. No more discussions. I'll never see my kid again. Never ever will I see my kid again.
I want that to sink in. It's eternity. My beautiful daughter, I'm never going to see again. And it's simple. It's not — we can fix it.
