President Trump will be meeting privately, without the press, with some of the parents who lost children in the Parkland mass shooting two years ago on Valentine’s Day. The meeting is set for 3:30 Monday afternoon in the Oval Office to make a school safety announcement. Fred Guttenberg, who was removed from last week’s State of the Union for yelling at the president, said he was not invited to the school safety event this afternoon. “I guess it is not all of the families as I only learned of this today through a reporter,” Guttenberg tweeted “My family and I were NOT invited.”
For those wondering, White House schedule today says:
3:30PM THE PRESIDENT greets Parkland Families
Oval Office
Closed Press
I guess it is not all of the families as I only learned of this today through a reporter. My family and I were NOT invited.
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) February 10, 2020
Guttenberg later apologized in a Tweet for his outburst during the State of the Union and said he would should have conducted himself with more dignity.
(2,2) That said, I should not have yelled out. I am thankful for the overwhelming support that I am receiving. However, I do owe my family and friends an apology. I have tried to conduct myself with dignity throughout this process and I will do better as I pursue gun safety.
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) February 5, 2020
Ryan Petty, who is attending the event, said in an interview that “a good portion” of the families will be in attendance. “I can’t say anything until we get there today but they are doing a school safety announcement, something we’ve been working on for the better part of a year,” Petty said. “I’m sworn to secrecy until we get there.” Petty, who has been working with a federal school safety commission for the past year, said the announcement will relate to several of its recommendations that were released last year. The recommendations include a federal clearinghouse for best practices regarding school safety, an issue that is traditionally handled by states and local school districts. Trump has not enacted new gun control measures despite political pressure from some Parkland students and families in the two years since the country’s deadliest high school shooting. Guttenberg is an active gun control advocate, while other parents like Petty and Max Schachter have focused on school safety and accountability for the FBI, which failed to follow up on tips about the Parkland shooter.