Corrected: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that a 2nd-grade student had called 911 to report the school shooting, which was based on information from Shon Barnes, the police chief in Madison, Wis. It was a 2nd-grade teacher who called 911, Barnes clarified.
In the final week before the Christmas break, a 15-year-old female high school student opened fire at a private Christian school in Madison, Wis., killing a teacher and a classmate, and injuring six others.
The Monday morning shooting at the nondenominational Abundant Life Christian School, which serves grades K-12, has left the school community reeling. Six other people were transported to area hospitals to be treated, including two students who have sustained “life-threatening” injuries, said Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes at a press conference. Both students remained in critical condition on Monday evening, Barnes said.
The suspected shooter, a teenage student at the school, was found dead when the police arrived at the scene, and police officers were not required to fire their weapons. The Associated Press had earlier reported the shooter was a 17-year-old girl.
The two victims who died have been identified as Erin West, a 42-year-old teacher, and Rubi Vergara, a 14-year-old student. The names and ages of the surviving victims have not been released.
West was the school’s substitute coordinator and an in-building substitute teacher, according to the Associated Press. Rubi was a freshman and an “avid reader” who “loved art, singing, and playing keyboard in the family worship band,” according to her obituary.
“Today truly is a sad day in Madison and for our country. It is a day that I believe will live in our collective lives for a very, very long time,” Barnes said, as he addressed the media alongside other local officials just a few hours after the shooting.
This is the 39th school shooting that has resulted in injuries and deaths in 2024, according to an Education Week analysis. There have been 221 such shootings since EdWeek began tracking such data in 2018. Prior to Monday’s shooting, 16 people had been killed in shootings at schools this year.
At an evening update for media, Barbara Wiers, an administrator at the school, said the shooting “has obviously rocked our school community.”
She said the school serves 420 K-12 students. The building does not have metal detectors but uses other security measures including cameras and a locked main entrance during the school day. Wiers said both students and staff train for school safety scenarios and that the staff had done a retraining as recently as this summer with the Madison police.
Barnes, who had said in one news conference after the shooting that a 2nd grader in the school was the first to call 911 corrected himself on Tuesday. The 911 call was made by a 2nd-grade teacher, he said.
Barnes said police detectives are investigating the potential motive behind the shooting by interviewing those who may have been witnesses and obtaining search warrants to get additional information. Police are currently in contact with the shooter’s family, who is “cooperating” with law enforcement.
The suspected teenage student used a “handgun” to carry out the shooting, Barnes said.
The police said they were prepared because of quarterly drills
Abundant Life did not have a school resource officer, Barnes said. Wier said there are no armed staff on the campus.
Private schools, generally, do not have to follow the same mandates as public schools when it comes to safety measures meant to deter weapons in schools.
The officers followed protocol when they arrived at the scene, Barnes said: “They immediately go in, which we did in this case, stop the threat, stop the killing, find the killer. That’s how we train, and that’s exactly what we did today.
“There’s no waiting, there’s no coordination of who’s in charge,” he added. “We train on this constantly. Our commanders, including the fire chief and I, were in a commander’s training less than two weeks ago, going over this exact same scenario for another fictional location.”
Special event team medics who work with the fire department were undergoing a training on similar situations at a training facility three miles from the school. They ended up responding to the real-time shooting at Abundant Life in the midst of their training, said Barnes.
In a statement, President Joe Biden condemned the shooting in Madison, stating that students should be learning how to “read and write” instead of learning how to “duck and cover.”
Students need to be protected from the “scourge of gun violence,” he added. “Congress must pass commonsense gun safety laws: Universal background checks. A national red flag law. A ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.”
School shootings have long-lasting effects
The surrounding public schools in Madison and the suburb of Monona temporarily implemented extra security measures on Monday, according to the Associated Press, although the police clarified that there were no threats to any other schools in the area. The Madison district has listed grief counseling and mental health resources for students, staff, and families.
While school shootings that lead to injury or death remain statistically rare, these incidents have a long-lasting emotional, psychological, and financial impact on schools. Schools have to help students overcome the trauma from a shooting, and also enhance security measures to help students and staff feel safe.
Members of the Principal Recovery Network, a national advocacy group made up of school leaders who have witnessed or survived gun violence in their school, have made consistent appeals to Congress on a range of issues like promoting firearm safety and more federal dollars to reinforce mental health support for their students and staff.
“My heart is breaking for the victims and families of Abundant Life Christian School. I want to emphasize that healing after a school shooting is a long and complex process. The school community needs immediate and ongoing mental health support for students, staff, and families,” said Elizabeth Brown, a member of the Principal Recovery Network and the principal of Forest High School in Ocala, Fla., where in 2018, a student opened fire and severely injured another student in the school.
“Recovery is not a sprint, but a marathon, and this school will need our help for years to come,” she added.
