The U.S. Department of Education awarded Kentucky’s Marshall County School District $138,213 following a January school shooting that took the lives of two students and wounded numerous others.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced the Project School Emergency Response to Violence (SERV) grant in a Friday press release. The grant will support the district’s recovery efforts following the Jan. 23 shooting at Marshall County High School where a 15-year-old gunman killed two students and wounded 15 others, according to CBS News.
“This grant is part of our ongoing commitment to help the Marshall County community recover and ensure its students, educators and parents are supported,” DeVos said in a statement. “My work on the Federal Commission on School Safety has focused and continues to focus on recognizing proven solutions to prevent these tragedies and to ensure all our schools are safe places of learning.”
The district will use the grant money to hire more teachers and counseling staff. The money will also compensate bus and custodial staff.
Marshall County Schools Superintendent Trent Lovett said the community is “beyond words,” in a Jan. 23 tweet following the shooting. “I know that, as parents, our greatest fear is something happening to our children, and today that fear became a reality,” a statement in the tweet reads. “Our courageous faculty and staff at all levels were outstanding in their response to today’s tragedy.” (RELATED: How To Significantly Reduce School Shootings Right Now, By The Time School Starts In The Fall)
The name of the shooter has not been released by authorities because the suspect is a minor. Then-sophomore “Gabe” Parker was taken into custody at the crime scene, the Courier Journal reported on Feb. 8.
The shooting was America’s first 2018 shooting that incurred fatalities.
“We are grateful to Secretary DeVos and the U.S. Department of Education for these grant funds that will support the Marshall County community as they continue to heal,” Kentucky GOP Gov. Matt Bevin said in a statement.
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