Over two years before Wednesday's shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was urged to address security concerns at nonpublic schools in the state, The Daily Wire reported.
"We are writing on behalf of our respective organizations regarding the urgent and critical need in Minnesota to make sure our schools are secure and safe considering the most recent, and continuing attacks, on our schools in this country and in our state," wrote Jason Adkins, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, and Tim Benz, president of Minndependent, in an April 2023 letter.
A month earlier, three students and three adults had been shot and killed at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, by Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old who attended the school as a child.
"The latest school shooting at a nonpublic Christian school in Tennessee sadly confirms what we already know — our schools are under attack. In Minnesota, nonpublic schools, particularly our Jewish and Muslim schools, have experienced increased levels of threats, all of which we must take very seriously," they wrote.
"An attack on any school, whether it is a public, nonpublic, charter or another school site, cannot be tolerated or allowed to happen in Minnesota. We want to make sure Minnesota is doing everything it can to ensure that all our students are safe and secure. We ask you to include $50 million in the final Education Finance bill and allow nonpublic schools to apply for funding," they continued.
Adkins told The Daily Wire that additional security was never funded.
"It's a lack of will to do it by elected officials, coupled with opposition by some legislators because nonpublic school students were included in the funding," Adkins said. "I would note that Minnesota had an $18 billion dollar budget surplus in the 2023-24 session and this was not funded."
On Wednesday, Robin Westman, a male-born 23-year-old transgender, killed 2 children and injured at least 17 people while they were celebrating Mass at the Catholic school, according to police. Westman then committed suicide.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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