Fred Guttenberg, left, and Andrew Pollack lost their daughters in the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. (Guttenberg photo: Michael Laughlin/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images; Pollack photo: Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images; background photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
(JTA[1]) — Jamie Guttenberg and Meadow Pollack shared many similarities. Both were brown-haired and bright-eyed girls, beloved by friends and family. Both were passionate about their hobbies.
Jamie, 14, spent her free time dancing and volunteering with special needs children. Meadow, 18, was a girly girl who loved the outdoors.
At a young age, the two South Florida Jewish teens already had a clear idea of what they wanted to do with their lives. Jamie wanted to be a pediatric physical therapist and hoped to work at the Paley Institute, a world-renowned orthopedic center in West Palm Beach. Meadow was planning to study law at Lynn University in Boca Raton.
Both girls were at school on Feb. 14 when a former student entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and started shooting. The gunman, Nicolas Cruz, killed 17 people, including Jamie and Meadow.[2]
That bloody day forever changed the lives of their families and the Parkland community.
Some of the student survivors founded a movement to advocate for gun control. Jamie and Meadow’s fathers have become prominent activists, each amassing tens of thousands of followers on Twitter.
But as similar as their daughters appeared to have been, the two fathers’ messages are opposite in many ways.
Fred Guttenberg, Jamie’s father, supports gun reform and is urging people to vote Democratic in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Meanwhile, Andrew Pollack, Meadow’s dad, is
