A resurfaced letter from the Minnesota Catholic Conference warned Governor Tim Walz in April 2023 that Catholic and other nonpublic schools were in “urgent and critical need” of security upgrades, declaring, “Our schools are under attack.” The letter, written by Tim Benz of MINNDEPENDENT and Jason Adkins of the Catholic Conference, highlighted rising threats and referenced the Covenant Christian School shooting in Nashville just a week earlier. Despite these appeals, Catholic officials said the request was ignored. Two years later, a shooter opened fire during Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school, killing two people and injuring seventeen, reinforcing long-standing concerns about unsafe nonpublic campuses.
The letter emphasized that Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, and other independent schools in Minnesota had already faced increased threats. Leaders warned that excluding nonpublic schools from the state’s $50 million Building and Cyber Security Grant Program and the Safe Schools Program left 72,000 students vulnerable. These programs support emergency training, mental health services, and physical security upgrades, but eligibility is limited to public districts, cooperatives, and charters. Church leaders, including Archbishop Bernard Hebda, had previously urged Walz to expand safety funding to include all schools.
State officials maintain that private schools receive some state support and have access to safety-center training resources. Walz’s office insisted the governor “cares deeply about the safety of students” and has approved millions for school security, though major grant programs still exclude nonpublic institutions under current Minnesota law.