Parents sent their children to Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wis., for many reasons. Some said they were drawn by the school’s rigorous academics, its high-performing sports teams or its grounding in Christian principles. Many said that the school, a small but growing academy that serves toddlers through teenagers, helped its students form unique connections.
It was that bond, displayed at an all-grades Christmas concert last week and a pajama day celebration this week for middle schoolers, that families said Tuesday that they were clinging to. They were grieving a shooting that left a student and a teacher dead on Monday and six other people injured.
“We’re all a family, and we all know each other, whether they’re in the same grade or not,” said Karl Gottschalk, who has three children enrolled at Abundant Life. “It’s never been a concern that something like this would happen since this is such a small, religious school.”
On Tuesday, four victims remained hospitalized, including two in critical condition. As a makeshift memorial grew on a sidewalk outside of the school and vigils were planned for the evening, families were left to wonder how something so terrible could have happened at their tightknit private school on Madison’s east side.
“It’s starting to be a big school, but we feel very connected,” said Michelet Jean-Charles, who moved to Wisconsin from Haiti and enrolled his three children at Abundant Life because the school’s teachings aligned with his Christian beliefs. “We feel that we can trust everyone at the school — the kids, their parents. We give hugs, we shake hands.”
The shooter was identified Monday night by the police as Natalie Rupnow, a 15-year-old Abundant Life student. She was found by police officers soon after the attack and was pronounced dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
City officials provided little new information on Tuesday, and the police chief, Shon F. Barnes, did not take questions after leading several free-flowing news conferences on Monday. He walked out of Tuesday’s briefing after delivering a short statement.
It “appears that the motive was a combination of factors,” the chief said, though he did not specify what those factors were. As to whether individuals had been targeted in the attack, he said, “everyone was targeted in this incident, and everyone was put in equal danger.”
Madison city officials did not name the two people who died.
“It is absolutely none of y’all’s business who was harmed in this incident,” Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said.
Abundant Life was founded in 1978 and had grown rapidly in recent years, interviews and state records showed, with many families using a state voucher program that covers private school tuition for eligible students. A school official said on Monday that about 420 students were enrolled, up from the roughly 290 students three years ago, according to state records.
When state officials audited the school’s lunch program in 2018, they noted that Abundant Life officials were welcoming and open to making changes. “The staff knows the students well and are addressed with respect,” the report said.
In 2020, Abundant Life was one of several schools that sued the Dane County health officer for ordering schools to close during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ultimately sided with Abundant Life and the other schools that sued.
Nick Cardarella, whose wife works at Abundant Life and whose stepsons are students, said that the school had an inviting atmosphere.
“It’s come as you are,” he said. “There is that religious element, but they’re not pushy in any kind of way.”
Parents said they were trying to help their children process the trauma that they experienced on the normally festive last week of classes before the Christmas holiday. Jason Johns said that he had been unable to reach his 15-year-old daughter for more than an hour after he learned of the shooting.
She told him that she had been in class when a series of loud pops nearby prompted her teacher to ask who was slamming lockers in the hallway. Then she and her classmates heard screams and the sounds of people dropping to the floor in the room next door. Her teacher drew the blinds and turned off the lights. Police officers later ushered them from the building.
Much remained unknown about the shooting. It was set to be a typical day at the school, with chicken sandwiches on the lunch menu and the boys’ basketball team scheduled to play a road game that night in Palmyra, Wis.
Then, at 10:57 a.m., a teacher called to report a shooting inside the school, Chief Barnes said. He said on Monday that the call had been placed by a second grader, but he apologized and corrected himself on Tuesday, saying that it had come from a second-grade teacher.
Law enforcement officers began arriving three minutes after the call. Chief Barnes said that the officers had immediately gone inside and had begun searching for the shooter, whom they found at 11:05 a.m. with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Officials said that the shooter had used a handgun in the attack, and it was not clear how she had acquired the weapon. The attack, officials said, was carried out during a study hall for students in several grades.
Chief Barnes said that he was not aware of the shooter’s having had any prior contact with law enforcement officials. He said that her parents were cooperating with investigators, and “we have no reason to believe that they have committed a crime at this time.” Attempts to reach the shooter’s parents were not immediately successful.
Barbara Wiers, an official at Abundant Life, said that students and staff members had been trained on how to respond to an attack. Cameras in the building were regularly monitored, she said, but the school did not have metal detectors or a police officer on campus. Several parents said that Abundant Life had a policy that required students to keep their cellphones in their lockers during the school day — an increasingly common approach on American campuses — which made it difficult for them to contact their parents after the shooting.
As families struggled to make sense of the attack, many said that they were leaning on their Christian faith.
“It’s a very tightknit community with not only excellent academics, but our love for Jesus and trust in God is the foundation,” said Hannah Lease, whose two sons are Abundant Life students. “That’s what keeps us going during this time.”
But the path forward remained unclear.
Mr. Johns, who was comforting his daughter, said it was too early to discuss whether she would be comfortable returning to the school. In the days ahead, he said, he wants to give his daughter opportunities to spend time with her family, pray, watch movies and celebrate Christmas, though she is not sure she will be able to enjoy the holiday this year.
“Abundant Life has been a wonderful place for her,” Mr. Johns said. “She takes a lot of joy there. The angry part of me goes: ‘Is that joy now taken away? And can she return?’ I don’t know.”
The post Families at a Tightknit Wisconsin School Wonder How a Shooting Occurred appeared first on New York Times.
