Workplace Violence at Schools – Struck-By Incidents: When Students Strike Teachers Fatality File

Official says Wisconsin shooter was new student at Christian school where her victims had deep ties

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin 15-year-old who shot and killed a teacher and a fellow student Monday was only in her first semester at the school but seemed to be settling in, a school official said Thursday as families of the victims remembered them as people of faith who had deep connections within the Christian school.

Abundant Life Christian School student Rubi Patricia Vergara, 14, of Madison and teacher Erin West, 42, of DeForest were killed Monday. Two other students who were shot remained hospitalized Thursday in critical condition.

Barbara Wiers, the school’s director for elementary and communications, told The Associated Press that the attack lasted eight minutes — shorter than the school’s regular snack break. She said the community’s faith and connection to one another has sustained them as they struggle with the possibility that the shooter’s motive might remain undetermined.

“Are we broken right now? Yes. Are we bruised and battered? Yes,” she said. “But we will laugh again, and He will turn our mourning into joy again. And we will go on.”

Police say student Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow shot herself at the school and died at a Madison hospital. Police have said her motivation for the attack remains a key part of their investigation.

Source: Apnews.com