{"id":183212,"date":"2025-08-28T22:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T22:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/183212\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T22:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T22:29:08","slug":"jacksonville-mom-raises-catholic-school-safety-concerns-after-minneapolis-church-shooting-action-news-jax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/183212\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville mom raises Catholic school safety concerns after Minneapolis church shooting \u2013 Action News Jax"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Jacksonville mother is calling for stronger safety protocols at local Catholic schools after a gunman opened fire on students praying inside a Minneapolis church<\/b><\/a> on Wednesday, August 27, killing two children and wounding several others during the first week of classes at Annunciation Catholic School.<\/p>\n

Clara Sowers said the tragedy rekindled fear from a threat her son faced in 2023 at Christ the King Catholic School in Arlington. <\/p>\n

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

She provided Action News Jax with a stack of documents outlining what she described as safety gaps and pleas to school leaders, she claims, fell on deaf ears.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I asked him what was wrong, he broke down in tears and said \u2026 \u2018he said he was going to kill you and Mami and Papi,\u2019 and basically our whole family,\u201d Sowers said, recalling what her then-12-year-old son told her about another student. She said the incident happened Oct. 19, 2023, during a sixth-grade Spanish class.<\/p>\n

Sowers alleges police were never called and that her correspondence to the principal at the time wasn\u2019t met with concern. She also alleged there was no school resource officer on campus at the time.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>\u2018Duty to protect our children\u2019: St. Augustine Catholic bishop responds to Minneapolis shooting<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2023 there was no SRO. I was a volunteer there. I\u2019m an active parishioner. I\u2019m at that parish three to four times a week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, a Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office patrol car was seen on the Christ the King Church and School property.<\/p>\n

Action News Jax asked the Diocese of St. Augustine whether it plans to increase security or re-evaluate policies in the wake of Wednesday\u2019s violence. A spokesperson said by email: \u201cNo, I don\u2019t expect a heightened presence of security at our churches, but they are there,\u201d adding that the diocese has two school resource officers and \u201ca majority of our schools have sheriff officers for the purpose of school safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

[SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n

Responding to Sowers\u2019 claim that Catholic schools don\u2019t have to follow the same threat protocols as public schools, the diocese said its schools \u201cmaintain an Emergency Operation Plan in consultation with law enforcement, conduct and report mandated fire, lockdown and severe weather drills, and report all weapons-related threats to police.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding Sowers\u2019 allegation that police were not called in her child\u2019s case, the diocese said it does not discuss incidents involving students but stated that it makes reports to law enforcement, and \u201cIn this case, we followed the standard procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the document below to see the Diocese of St. Augustine\u2019s full responses to the concerns raised by Sowers:<\/p>\n

[DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n

Sowers said the threats against her family never materialized into violence, but her trust has been shaken. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat could happen at Christ the King \u2014 at any of our parishes \u2014 because we don\u2019t lock the door,\u201d she said. \u201cThe doors of the church are open for a reason. You are welcome 24\/7. God\u2019s arms are always open for that reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite her concerns, Sowers said her faith remains strong as she pushes for clearer, more consistent safety measures at local Catholic school campuses.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n

Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Jacksonville mother is calling for stronger safety protocols at local Catholic schools after a gunman opened fire…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":183213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[7320,5229,103023,7323,103026,103025,3188,723,7324,7310,7327,103022,7325,103024,7326,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,7322,7321],"class_list":{"0":"post-183212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action-news-jax","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-catholic-school-shooting","11":"tag-cbs47","12":"tag-christ-the-king-catholic-school","13":"tag-diocese-of-st-augustine","14":"tag-fl","15":"tag-florida","16":"tag-fox30","17":"tag-jacksonville","18":"tag-jacksonville-fl","19":"tag-minneapolis-school-shooting","20":"tag-northeast-florida","21":"tag-shooting-during-catholic-mass","22":"tag-southeast-georgia","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-usa","29":"tag-wfox","30":"tag-wjax"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115108759087894344","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}