29-05-2025
Gun advocacy group says speaker ‘shamefully lied' about surviving school shooting at Frankfort rally
FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — A national gun safety organization said one of its featured speakers during a Frankfort news conference lied about being a gun violence survivor.
On Feb. 12, FOX 56 covered a gun safety rally hosted by Everytown, an organization focused on ending gun violence.
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Multiple people spoke at the event, including a University of Louisville student, Calvin Polachek.
Everytown identified Polachek as a gun violence survivor in the press release sent to FOX 56 and other media outlets.
During the rally, Polachek told an emotional story of a school shooting at his high school in Dallas, Pennsylvania, claiming his best friend and several classmates were killed.
However, in the past 24 hours, FOX 56 has received numerous emails and messages from community members in Dallas saying the story Polachek told was a complete lie.
'The sentiments I was getting from our community were troubled and disappointed, and maybe a little bit more severe than that,' said Dallas School District superintendent Thomas Duffy.
Duffy said the district never experienced the shooting Polachek described.
'There certainly was some discomfort with a story like that being reported about in a relatively small district in the northeast part of that state,' Duffy added. 'The events that were described did not take place, thankfully, in our district.'
Duffy said the district is working with its attorney to ensure parents and families know the truth.
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'They were well aware that this didn't occur here, and obviously our current parents and families, but just to affirm that the information conveyed about this horrific act of school violence was inaccurate,' said Duffy.
Concern over Polachek's story isn't limited to Pennsylvania. Kentucky officials who attended the rally are speaking out, too.
Kentucky State Representative Adam Moore was one of the speakers that day and said he is deeply troubled by what happened.
'Even if this is a person who is on my side of an issue, if that means responsible gun ownership, that does not mean that the lie is okay,' Moore said. 'I hate this. It is absolutely unethical and plain wrong to be lying about this stuff, even if he's on my side of the issue.'
FOX 56 reached out to Everytown to ask when they learned Polachek's story wasn't true, which they said was after its Kentucky Advocacy Day.
A spokesperson said, 'Calvin Polachek is not an active volunteer with Moms Demand Action or Students Demand Action, and we are deeply disappointed that someone would exploit the tragic, lived experience of many to use our platform to share a story that was not true. Calvin reached out to our Kentucky chapter, shamefully lied to our volunteers, and shared a tragic story that we later learned was not true. This is an affront to the countless survivors of gun violence who show extraordinary courage every day by reliving their darkest moments in service of the fight to end our country's gun violence crisis. We are revisiting our guidance to our grassroots networks in an effort to ensure this never happens again.'
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FOX 56 also asked if Everytown is required to notify media outlets when something like this happens. The spokesperson reiterated what they said in the previous statement, saying, 'We are revisiting our guidance to our grassroots networks in an effort to ensure this never happens again.'
We have learned that Polachek was a student in the Dallas School District.
We reached out to him for comment, but haven't heard back.
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