Today U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced that the Department of Education will provide a $50,152.52 grant to the Grossmont Union High School District under Project School Emergency Response to Violence (Project SERV). Grossmont is the district that houses Santana High School in Santee, California.

"In the aftermath of a school shooting, we need to give our students and their families important counseling and support services to help them to cope with the consequences," Paige said. He added that "school violence effects all parts of a local community, and this is one way that the Department of Education can assist states and local school districts during times of crisis and challenge for our communities."

The grant awarded today is the first of its kind under Project SERV, a new program created to provide financial assistance to local school districts that have experienced a traumatic event such as a school shooting. Project SERV makes funds available to those districts for use in connection with event response and the reestablishment of a safe environment that is conducive to learning.

Project SERV was created with a $10 million appropriation from Congress last year. Guidelines for the program are still being developed, but draft guidelines for grants under the program recommend that the Department of Education make Project SERV funds available for short-term assistance to school districts, as well as to support those school districts in meeting longer-term crisis response needs. Project SERV is administered through the Department's Safe and Drug Free Schools Program.

The Grossmont Union High School District will use the Department of Education funds for purposes including security services, counseling services, support services and translation services to allow the district to assist Spanish-speaking families. Immediately following the shooting at Santana High School on March 5, 2001, the Department of Education sent counselors and school administrators with experience dealing with traumatic and violent incidents in schools to Santee, California to assist the district. In addition to the immediate response activities and the grant awarded today, representatives of the Department of Education will continue to provide consulting and other services to the district.

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