Amid a social media firestorm over criticism of a comment made by Attorney General Andy Beshear regarding the Marshall County High School shooting, a parent of a victim said Beshear had spoken briefly with him and with other families of victims.
Jeff Dysinger, whose daughter was shot but not killed in the Jan. 23, 2018 shooting, appeared in a Facebook Live video Saturday, which claimed that a group of 14 families “have never heard from Andy Beshear or his staff.”
But in the comment section on that video, Dysinger posted that Beshear did speak briefly with victim families two days after the shooting, though Dysinger didn’t consider there to have been “meaningful conversation.”
Gov. Matt Bevin first referenced the shooting when asked about a school safety bill at the most recent gubernatorial debate at the University of Kentucky.
Following Bevin’s answer, Beshear said, “I also met with the parents of the Marshall County school shooting, and … offered them every resource of our office.”
Bevin accused Beshear of lying in a tweet Thursday morning, and Marshall County Judge-Executive Kevin Neal took to the Marshall County Fiscal Court Facebook page to read a letter to Beshear’s office, asking him to “clarify” his words and claiming that 12 families said they had “never been contacted or approached by you or any of your staff in any way.”
Neal’s letter then said the remaining families had “not yet responded to the inquiry.”
In the most recent Facebook video, Brian Cope, the father of slain student Preston Cope, upped that number to 14 families claiming no contact, saying Beshear could have spoken to, at most, three families.
But Dysinger, who appears with Cope in the video, posted in the comments on that video that Beshear “walked into the jurors room where we were sitting awaiting the hearing … to say we’re going to be on top of this.”
“He was there for 20 seconds. There was no conversation,” Dysinger continued, adding Beshear hasn’t attempted to contact “any of us” since then.
Former student Keaton Conner has said other students subsequently met with Beshear at a school safety rally and she felt he took them seriously, criticizing Bevin as using them for publicity.
Local school safety advocate Heather Adams, whose son was at the school the day of the shooting but was not injured, accused Neal and Bevin last week of politicizing the trauma.
Neal, she said, “assumes that the rest of us are not victims. Is he going to ask every student and parent of a Marshall County student if Beshear has reached out to us? The physically uninjured are victims too.”
She said the entire community has been traumatized, and considering that some have met and had conversations with Beshear makes the complaint against Beshear untrue.
Beshear’s campaign, as well as former County Attorney Jeff Edwards and Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jacob Ford, all confirmed Beshear’s Jan. 25, 2018, visit, and all characterized the meeting as brief, but said Beshear was telling the truth.
They also said Beshear met with prosecutors and offered them the resources of his office, which Ford said has been helpful. Ford also posted on social media that Beshear “hasn’t let us down yet.”
“He even provided his personal cell phone number to everyone,” Ford said, though noting that not every family was present, “and those who were there may just have forgotten about this meeting.”
In the most recent video, Cope read a letter centering on the idea that some people believe Beshear implied he spoke with all the families of the killed or injured victims. He also sent that letter to The Sun on Monday.
“We haven’t met a person that didn’t think that Mr. Beshear was implying he talked to all of us that had children directly affected by the shooting. We’ve met no one that thinks it,” the letter read.
“Yes, he was here two days after the shooting. Yes, he did talk to only a few of the parents that had children affected,” Cope’s statement read, but he called on Beshear to “clarify his comments” and apologize.
Cope said the families’ goal was not political, and claims Beshear “intentionally made his comment sound as if he spoke with all the families affected by the shooting. He didn’t.”
Cope, who said his letter represents “fourteen of the seventeen families directly affected,” said
“Mr. Beshear has left little doubt that he was using the tragedy we relive every day for personal political gain.”
The video was later posted to a “Re-elect Judge-Executive Neal” Facebook page, though that page doesn’t list an administrator.
Neal did not return messages left Monday afternoon.
Bevin, the first to mention the shooting at the Oct. 15 debate at the University of Kentucky, also referenced the shooting at the Oct. 3 forum in Paducah while answering a question regarding the school safety bill. Beshear did not reference the shooting in that debate.
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Written by Dave Thompson. Cross-posted from the
Paducah Sun via the Kentucky Press News Service.