U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos joined Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin Wednesday in awarding Marshall County High School with a grant to aid in the recovery process followingthe 2018 shooting.
DeVos and Bevin met with students, administrators and victim’s families to announce the $460,000 dollar grant. It’s been more than a year since a student opened fire at Marshall County High School, killing two and injuring more than a dozen.
The federal ‘School Emergency Response to Violence,’ (or Project SERV) grant will go towards hiring additional and funding current resource officers, hall monitors and outreach teaching positions.
DeVos encouraged administrators to reference the final report from President Donald Trump’s Commission on School Safety released last December. “They really were a compilation of some of the best practices that are being employed- and deployed across the United States. We hope that you will view it and use it as a resource,” she said.
The Commission on School Safety was formed after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida that killed 17 students. Trump tasked the commission with giving policy recommendations to prevent further school shootings.
Bevin, Principal Patricia Greer, Superintendent Trent Lovett and Resource Officer Sgt. Ray Chumbler also spoke at the event. Bevin praised how Marshall County’s administration has handled the aftermath of the shooting. When speaking directly to students in the room, Bevin said the support the students have from their community is “abnormal.”
“It is that abnormality that should be celebrated. When you get older, you’ll look back and realize ‘hey, so much of what we need, much of what I wanted for my own family is in that community,’” he said.
Bevin and DeVos also attended a roundtable event in Lexington Wednesday to discuss a $5 billion tax credit program created by Trump’s administration that could incentivize the funding of charter schools.
Marshall County High School’s SERV grant will last until the summer of 2020.
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