Unearthed letter exposes how Minnesota Catholic leaders warned Walz on school safety
'The latest school shooting at a nonpublic Christian school in Tennessee sadly confirms what we already know – our schools are under attack,' the letter said
By Peter Pinedo , Deirdre Heavey Fox News
Published August 28, 2025 5:21pm EDT | Updated August 28, 2025 5:34pm EDT
In a resurfaced letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the head of the Minnesota Catholic Conference expressed that Catholic and other nonpublic schools were in "urgent and critical need" of security improvements, saying, "Our schools are under attack."
The plea went unheeded, and two years later, the concerns raised by Catholic leaders materialized when a gunman opened fire on students of a Minneapolis Catholic school while they were attending Mass, leaving two dead and 17 injured.
The letter was first reported on by the Daily Wire and was sent by Minnesota Catholic Conference Executive Director Jason Adkins and Tim Benz, president of the private school advocacy group MINNDEPENDENT. The letter was sent on April 14, 2023, and is still publicly available on the Minnesota Catholic Conference’s website.
"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 expressed serious concern that the 72,000 students enrolled in independent, Catholic, Jewish, Christian and Muslim schools in Minnesota could be in danger due to nonpublic schools being excluded from the $50 million Building and Cyber Security Grant Program and the state’s Safe Schools Program, which provides emergency response training, security upgrades, mental health services and other security measures.
The leaders said they were especially concerned given "the most recent, and continuing attacks, on our schools in this country and in our state."
"We need to ensure that all of schools have the resources to respond to and prevent these attacks from happening to our schools," the leaders 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," the leaders added. "We want to make sure Minnesota is doing everything it can to ensure that all our students are safe and secure. We ask you include $50 million in the final Education Finance bill and allow nonpublic schools to apply for funding."
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