June 26 (UPI) — Two baseball coaches who served as security monitors at the South Florida high school where a gunman killed 17 people in February lost their jobs for not doing enough to prevent the massacre, district officials announced Tuesday.
Andrew Medina and David Taylor will no longer be employed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., after the Broward County School Board voted to terminate them without discussion.
In an interview Medina gave to investigators shortly after the shooting, he said he saw accused shooter Nicolas Cruz, a former student who school officials were aware could be a threat, but didn’t confront him or issue a “Code Red,” WTVJ-TV reported.
“We had a meeting about him last year, and we said, ‘If there’s gonna be anybody who’s gonna come to this school and shoot this school up, it’s gonna be that kid,’” Medina told investigators.
Taylor also saw Cruz on campus but lost track of him.
“I believe he made eye contact with me. I looked at him and he immediately made a right turn into that far east stairwell,” Taylor told investigators.
Neither Medina nor Taylor were armed.
Attorney Russell Williams, who is representing Medina and Taylor, told the Sun-Sentinel his clients are being treated unfairly.
“What kind of due process is that? We could have at least been there to argue points,” Williams said.
Medina also was under scrutiny after two female students accused him of sexual harassment in February 2017. One of those students was Meadow Pollack, who was killed during the shooting.
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