Key Updates
December 19, 2024
The two victims killed in the Abundant Life Christian School shooting were a 14-year-old who loved singing and playing keyboard in her family’s worship band and a 42-year-old teacher who colleagues said taught “with the love of Jesus.”
The Dane County Medical Examiner publicly identified the victims as Rubi P. Vergara, a freshman, and Erin M. West, the substitute coordinator for the school. Six others were injured in the shooting, and two remain hospitalized.
Police said earlier that the suspected shooter, 15-year-old Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the way to the hospital.
“Rubi will be deeply missed” by her parents, brother, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends, according to an obituary from a local funeral home. She was an avid reader, loved art, and shared a “special bond” with her cat and dog.
She attended Abundant Life starting in kindergarten, according to a statement from the school.
“Her gentle, loving, and kind heart was reflected in her smile,” the school stated. “Rubi was a blessing to her class and our school. She was not only a good friend, but a great big sister. Often seen with a book in hand, she had a gift for art and music. Yet, it was Rubi’s love for Jesus that shined brightest and she shared his love with others by volunteering faithfully. She will be missed deeply by her teachers and fellow students.”
Vergara’s funeral will be held Saturday at City Church, a nondenominational church that shares a campus with Abundant Life (ALCS). The service will be livestreamed. City Church announced that in light of the shooting, the church was canceling all other events except Sunday church services and its Christmas Eve service.
West served as a substitute teacher at the school for three years before joining the staff as substitute coordinator and an in-house substitute teacher.
“ALCS is a better school for the work of Erin West,” the school stated. “She served our teachers and students with grace, humor, wisdom, and—most importantly—with the love of Jesus. Her loss is a painful and deep one and she will be greatly missed not just among our staff, but our entire ALCS family.”
December 17, 2024
The dark longing of Advent hung over the sanctuary at City Church in Madison, Wisconsin, Tuesday night.
Standing before a silhouette of the Nativity, teachers from Abundant Life Christian School cried as they prayed through grief and pain from a mass shooting on their campus the day before.
They recalled publicly how Emmanuel, “God with us,” came to Earth even when everything felt dark.
Police say a 15-year-old student shot eight people in a study hall, killing a teacher and a student. Two other students remain in critical condition. Police have not yet identified the victims.
“Jesus, that was scary,” Barbara Johnson, a middle school teacher, began her prayer.
Students, pastors, and other members of the community gathered at City Church, a nondenominational church that shares some staff and a campus with the school.
Katie Gruchow, who teaches art at Abundant Life, said in the aftermath of the shooting she kept thinking of the song “In Christ Alone,” which they sang together at the church.
One teacher read Isaiah 40, a popular Christmas passage that begins, “Comfort, comfort my people.” Another talked about looking forward to lighting the last Advent candle this coming Sunday, which symbolizes love.
They prayed for healing for those in critical condition and for their students’ minds to heal from things they saw.
“In the depths of our spirits we know you are good, but our hearts are so confused,” prayed Lisa Haynie, a middle school teacher, her voice shaky. “Our hearts waffle between being angry and afraid and being filled with memories and trauma. God, we don’t know how to manage all of that. We’re just coming to you and saying we need you.”
“I don’t know how to still and quiet my soul,” Haynie concluded.
Another teacher is also one of the pastors at City Church, Sarah Karlen.
“Despite our pain and our grief … we know you are not gone. You are standing here with scarred hands and feet and saying, ‘I am with you,’” she prayed.
City Church lead pastor Tom Flaherty commended the local police for how they made kids feel safe in bringing them out of the school after the shooting, showing them “kindness and steadiness.” Flaherty said the church had had offers of help from all over. Teachers shared that they felt a supernatural calm in front of their classes during the lockdown.
Gruchow said a student emailed her after the shooting to let her know she was okay. The student sent her a quote from The Lord of the Rings movies, where the main character Frodo says, “I wish none of this had happened.” And Gandalf replies, “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
Other local pastors came and prayed for the school too. Flaherty read from Psalms 34, 62, and 69, all psalms of lament.
“A third of the psalms are about the human situation in a world of grief, confusion, and loss,” he told the gathering. He talked about Job, and Job’s friends offering lengthy explanations for Job’s suffering.
“Everything they thought was happening was not happening,” he said. “At the end of it all, neither Job nor the friends get an explanation from God about what exactly happened.”
He said the shooting was “from hell” and was allowed to happen “for reasons that are unknown to us.”
“I am urging every student and every faculty member to get out of the, What if I had just done this? What if I had just done that?” he said. “God has more resources than you. He has a million ways he could have stopped yesterday. And he allowed it to happen. So I am begging you, stop blaming yourself. Stop assigning blame. What happens when you get into that vicious cycle of blame—you’re not going to receive the comfort that God wants you to have.”
The gathering concluded with the song “Raise a Hallelujah,” singing, “Up from the ashes, hope will arise / Death is defeated, the King is alive.”
National Christian organizations have offered their comfort and support as well in the day since the shooting. The Association of Christian Schools International, Abundant Life’s accreditor, stated its staff were praying for the injured and the school community, thanking law enforcement, and emphasizing the importance of school safety.
The National Association of Evangelicals also offered a statement.
“We join with so many others in grieving with the Abundant Life Christian School community in Wisconsin,” the organization wrote. “In this season in which we remember how light broke into our darkness, we pray that God’s presence would be close to those impacted by the shooting.”
December 16, 2024
Amid announcements about lunch menus, fundraisers, and Christmas concerts, Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, posted, “Prayers Requested!” It was the scenario so many teachers and parents fear: a shooter on campus.
By mid-morning on Monday, just days before Christmas vacation, two people had been killed, at least six injured, and the suspect found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police. Police later identified the shooter as a 15-year-old female student at the school, Natalie Rupnow, who went by Samantha.
A teacher and a teenage student were killed, police later updated. Two of the injured were in critical condition, they said. Four of the injured have non-life-threatening injuries.
The shooting took place in a study hall of children from different grades, police said in an evening briefing.
“I’m feeling a little dismayed now, so close to Christmas,” said Madison police chief Shon Barnes. “Every child, every person in that building, is a victim and will be a victim forever. These types of trauma don’t just go away.”
This would be the most casualties in a shooting at a Christian school since the 2023 shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, where six were killed, including three 9-year-olds. That shooting prompted private Christian schools to consider tighter security measures.
Barbara Wiers, the elementary and school relations director at Abundant Life, detailed the school’s security measures at an evening press conference alongside police. The school had done school safety training through the US Department of Justice as well as through the Madison Police Department, receiving grants “to harden our school, if you can use that language,” said Wiers. Students and staff trained in lockdown and evacuation drills.
Abundant Life did not have metal detectors, but the school doors remained locked after the school day started, and the school had security cameras in the building. Staff did visual scans of students arriving in the morning to check for anything unusual.
Wiers herself was teaching during the shooting and said that students heard a voice on the intercom say, “Lockdown, lockdown,” and then they realized the shooting was real and not a drill.
“The students handled themselves magnificently,” she said, and they did what they had trained to do. “They were clearly scared.”
At the reunification site later, Wiers spoke to parents.
“Whether their child was affected by this or not, they were affected by it, because what affects one part of the body affects all, as we know the Bible says,” she said. “We have a very strong faith in our community that in spite of tragedy, God is working, and we believe God is good in everything, and that he turns beauty from ashes.”
Madison police did not share details on the victims, saying they needed to notify relatives. Barnes said they do not have information on a motive for the shooter.
“My heart is heavy for my community,” Barnes said. “We have practiced, unfortunately, and practiced and practiced, and that’s why we’re able to reunify students with their parents within hours of a school shooting.” Barnes commended the officers who “selflessly ran into a building not knowing what they would encounter.”
The school wrote on Facebook, “Today, we had an active shooter incident at ALCS. We are in the midst of following up. We will share information as we are able. Please pray for our Challenger Family.”
The pre-K–12 school shares its a 28-acre campus with City Church, a nondenominational church that the school describes as a parent ministry, as well as Campus for Kids, another City Church ministry that provides preschool and afterschool care. City Church is affiliated with the Fellowship of Christian Assemblies, a network of autonomous churches with roots in Scandinavian Pentecostalism.
Abundant Life started in 1978 with a vision of “providing academic excellence in a Christ-centered environment,” according to the school website. “We are committed to developing the whole person: intellectually, spiritually, socially, and physically,” wrote principal Doug Butler on the school website.
“It’s a well respected Christian school in the community,” said Tom Lin, the CEO of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, which is based in Madison. Several InterVarsity staff members send their children to the school, he added, and they were thankfully all safe.
The school has an enrollment of 420 students, is accredited through the Association of Christian Schools International, and belongs to a Christian school network in Wisconsin called Impact Christian Schools. Another Christian school affiliated with Abundant Life through the Impact network, Ozaukee Christian School, held a prayer time for Abundant Life on Monday.
“That could be us,” Kris Austin, the head of school at Ozaukee Christian School told TMJ4. “No matter what happens in the next week or months, God is there for them, and we will be there too.”
Abundant Life had a Christmas concert last week, where children sang, “Glory be to you alone.” The students were supposed to have an Ugly Christmas Sweater Day this Friday.
City Church canceled all campus events for Monday evening, citing the incident, and said it would have a prayer meeting in response to the shooting on Tuesday.
Local churches called on congregants to pray for Abundant Life. New Life Church ELCA in Madison posted a prayer of lament for the school.
“God, giver of life, you intend for humans to live together in peace,” the church wrote. “Enfold in your loving embrace all who mourn.”
“We are praying for the kids, educators, and entire Abundant Life school community as we await more information and are grateful for the first responders who are working quickly to respond,” said Wisconsin governor Tony Evers, posting on X.
Madison mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway shared her condolences with “the whole Abundant Life community.”
“Our focus now is on supporting them and supporting the victims and their families,” Rhodes-Conway said. “We will continue to do that in the coming days and weeks.”
This is the second shooting at a Christian school this month. A gunman shot and wounded two kindergartners at a Seventh-day Adventist school in rural California on December 5, and then killed himself. The boys, 5 and 6 years old, were in critical condition but are recovering.
With reporting by Kate Shellnutt.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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