The family of Meadow Pollack, the vibrant teenager who died while shielding classmates from a crazed gunman last month in Parkland, Florida, hoped to join protesters over the weekend and have their voices be heard.
According to her father and brother, however, they were declined the opportunity to share their thoughts to those in attendance. What could possibly be so controversial or unappealing to deny a victim’s family the chance to speak?
A local news outlet recently caught up with Hunter Pollack and asked him to read
More background on the denial from Local10.com in which a student organizer claims Hunter was scheduled to speak, but didn’t show up to the event.
The brother of one of the victims of the Parkland school shooting said he was shut out of a speaking slot during Saturday’s “March for Our Lives” event in Washington, D.C.
“I was going to give a speech about Meadow and how devastated I am and how we need to make change, but they won’t allow me to put my voice out,” said Hunter Pollack, whose sister, Meadow, was one of 17 people killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.
Ryan Deitsch, one of the student organizers of ‘March for Our Lives,’ said Hunter Pollack was set to speak at the Washington rally as late as Saturday morning, even appearing on a printed schedule, but “he never showed up.”
“We openly invited a lot of people, and some people just turned it down,” Deitsch said.
READ: Jesus Prayed For Us. Now We Have To Pray For Others.
It’s possible it was an honest mix-up, but the Pollack’s seem convinced they were purposefully excluded from the event.
“We got denied to speak at the march so I’m not going to the march, I’m going to a lacrosse game,” Andrew Pollack said. “I guess he’s got a different agenda than their agenda so they denied him.”
Asked whether the Pollack’s differing views on gun control affected Hunter Pollack’s speaking slot, Deitsch, a senior at Stoneman Douglas, said it was “not political whatsoever, he just wasn’t there.”
Hunter Pollack said he traveled to Washington to support his sister and to see history, but the experience left him disillusioned.
“I feel that they don’t really care about the victims families. If they did, they would have let me spoken,” he said in a video posted to Facebook Saturday. “I don’t know what this is about, but it’s definitely not about the victims.”
Emotions are running high, and it’s just unfortunate that families have to endure the political chaos in addition to the grief they are already suffering. Prayers for all involved, that they may receive the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, and that the division in this country is lessoned.
(H/T: Local10.com)