Teenage girl kills teacher, fellow student at private Christian school in Wisconsin
By Scott Bauer
Madison: A 15-year-old girl opened fire in a Wisconsin school classroom on Tuesday (AEDT), fatally shooting a fellow student and a teacher and wounding six other people before killing herself with the handgun, police said.
The latest school shooting to devastate a US community took place at the Abundant Life Christian School, a private institution that teaches some 400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade in Madison, the state capital of about 270,000 people.
An emergency vehicle outside the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin.Credit: AP
Two students who were wounded in the shooting had life-threatening injuries, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told a press conference. A teacher and three other students were shot and expected to survive.
The shooter was identified as Natalie Rupnow, who also went by the name Samantha, Barnes said.
A school shooting carried out by a girl remains a rarity, with only about 3 per cent of all US mass shootings perpetrated by females, studies show.
A bus carrying students passes emergency vehicles parked outside the Abundant Life Christian School after the shooting.Credit: AP
There was as yet no known motive for the violence. The shooter’s family was cooperating with the investigation, police said.
“Today is a sad, sad day, not only for Madison, but for our entire country, where yet another police chief is doing a press conference to speak about violence in our community,” Barnes, a former school teacher, told reporters at an earlier press conference.
“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,” Barnes said.
He said a second-grade student, who would generally be 7 or 8 years old, called 911 to report the shooting at the school.
“Let that soak in for a minute,” Barnes said.
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes speaks to reporters.Credit: AP
There have been 322 school shootings this year in the US, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database website. That is the second-highest total of any year since 1966, according to that database – topped only by last year’s total of 349 such shootings.
“We need to do better in our country and our community to prevent gun violence,” Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said.
“I’m not aware that the school had metal detectors, nor should schools have metal detectors. It’s a safe space,” Barnes said.
“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,” Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said in a statement.
In a statement, the White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting, and officials were in touch with local authorities to provide support.
Abundant Life Christian School, which is nondenominational, asked for prayers in a short Facebook post.
‘Your world stops’
Bethany Highman, the mother of a student, rushed to the school after hearing about the shooting and learnt over FaceTime that her daughter was OK.
“As soon as it happened, your world stops for a minute. Nothing else matters,” Highman said. “There’s nobody around you. You just bolt for the door and try to do everything you can as a parent to be with your kids.”
A family leaves from a shelter at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin.Credit: AP
The shooting is the latest among dozens of school shootings across the US in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.
The shootings have set off fervent debates about gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are growing up accustomed to doing active shooter drills in their classrooms. But school shootings have done little to move the needle on national gun laws.
Firearms were the leading cause of death among children in 2020 and 2021, according to KFF, a nonprofit that researches healthcare issues.
A family leaves the shelter after multiple injuries were reported.Credit: AP
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