*Valerie Castile, mother of Philando Castille, vowed to help pay off school debt in honor of her son who was fatally shot by a Minnesota police officer during a traffic stop in 2016.
Since then, she has delivered a $35,000 check to St. Paul Public Schools though the Philando Castile Relief Foundation, which also helps survivors of gun violence and police violence.
Most recently, Valerie gave an $8,000 check to administrators at Robbinsdale Cooper High School in New Hope, Minn., to erase the lunch debt threatening to keep more than 300 seniors from graduating, the Chicago Tribune reports.
“This is something that Philando held near and dear to his heart,” Valerie Castile told a Minnesota news station.
“He just loved the kids,” J.J. Hill teacher Anna Garnaas told the Washington Post after Castile, 32, was killed. “He always made sure that they had what they needed. He knew their names, he knew what they liked, he knew who had allergies. And they loved him.”
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Castile worked at J.J. Hill since at 19, and was promoted in 2014 to nutrition services supervisor. Stacey Koppen, director of Nutrition Services at Saint Paul Public Schools, worked with Castile, and remembers him as a “kind and caring” person.
When kids couldn’t afford school lunch, Castile often had their back and paid with his own money.
“This fundraiser honoring him and his memory couldn’t be more perfect,” said Koppen. “This is what he did. He did so without question or praise.”
Castile’s death sparked nationwide protests against police brutality. He was shot five times in his car by a police officer who was later acquitted of manslaughter charges.
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