Community Corner

PDHS Students Hosting Car Wash for Scholarship in Slain Teacher's Name

Jill Grant was a teacher at Palm Desert High School whose life was cut short last December.

Palm Desert High School students will wash cars on Saturday to raise money for the Jill Grant Memorial Scholarship Fund established in the name of a math teacher murdered in Indio, it was announced Monday.

The 41-year-old Palm Desert High School teacher was found dead near Golf Center Parkway and Avenue 42 in Indio last Dec. 23. She was allegedly killed by her boyfriend, who is awaiting trial.

The car wash -- scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Palm Desert Self Serve Car Wash, 73-220 Highway 111 -- is being organized by the Palm Desert Youth Committee and Supervisor John Benoit's Coachella Valley Youth Advisory Council.

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A car wash will cost $5, and advance tickets will be sold at Benoit's Palm Desert office at 73-710 Fred Waring Drive, Suite 222; and in the special programs department at Palm Desert City Hall, 73510 Fred Waring.

Grant grew up in the Santa Rosa Mountains above Palm Springs and attended Palm Desert Middle School and Palm Desert High School, graduating in 1990. She taught math at Palm Springs High School for three years, and began teaching at her alma mater in 1998. In January, a memorial service was held for Grant in the school's gym.

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Her boyfriend, 43-year-old Michael John Franco, was arrested after investigators found evidence at his Indio residence that allegedly linked him to her death. Franco is jailed in lieu of $5 million bail and has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge.

— City News Service.


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