The leader of the Minnesota Catholic Conference stated that Catholic and other nonpublic schools were in “urgent and critical need” of security upgrades in a letter that was resurrected and addressed to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The letter read, “Our schools are under attack.”
The request was ignored, and two years later, a shooter opened fire on students at a Minneapolis Catholic school during Mass, leaving two people dead and seventeen injured, bringing the worries expressed by Catholic officials to life.
Tim Benz, president of the private school advocacy group MINNDEPENDENT, and Jason Adkins, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, sent the letter, which was first published by the Daily Wire. The letter, which was sent on April 14, 2023, is still accessible to the general public on the website of the Minnesota Catholic Conference.
“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,” the leaders wrote.
In the letter, the leaders pointed to the mass shooting at Covenant Christian School in Nashville, which had occurred just a week before the letter was sent, saying, “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,” the leaders added. “The tragedy from last week at Covenant School must never happen in Minnesota or in our country again.”
The leaders voiced grave concerns that nonpublic schools’ exclusion from the $50 million Building and Cyber Security Grant Program and the state’s Safe Schools Program, which offers emergency response training, security upgrades, mental health services, and other security measures, could put Minnesota’s 72,000 students enrolled in independent, Catholic, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim schools in jeopardy.
