NEW: Tim Walz Embroiled In Massive Scandal Linked To Minnesota Shooting

A newly unsurfaced letter appears to show that Catholic school leaders warned Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz about the growing hate crimes facing their faith, adding to the uncertainty around Catholic school safety in the months leading up to Wednesday’s deadly shooting.

The letter, sent to Walz in 2023 by the Minnesota Catholic Conference, highlights the “urgent and critical need” for security improvements at faith-based schools, stating, “Our schools are under attack.”

No funding was reportedly appropriated, and now two years later, families are grieving after two elementary children were killed and 15 others seriously wounded following a mass shooting at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis.

Minnesota Catholic Conference Executive Director Jason Adkins and Tim Benz, president of the private school advocacy group MINNDEPENDENT, sent the letter to Walz, which is still available for public viewing 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.

The authors cited a transgender gunman who conducted a deadly rampage at a Nashville Catholic school that year.

“The latest school shooting at a nonpublic Christian school in Tennessee sadly confirms what we already know – our schools are under attack,” the letter states.

“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.”

Over 72,000 Minnesota students are enrolled in independent, Catholic, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim schools, the letter explained. Without security improvements through state funding, those kids would be put at additional risk compared to their public school counterparts.

Both 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, per Fox News. “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.”

A spokesman for the Conference also pointed to a request to Walz sent in 2022 for private religious schools to be included in the state’s school safety programs.

Walz’s office told Fox News that “private schools do indeed receive state funding” and that “they are also eligible for school safety center resources, including trainings.”

Walz’s spokesperson said the governor “cares deeply about the safety of students and has signed into law millions in funding for school safety.”