Madison tragedy spurs local reactions as students, staff grapple with gun violence
Gun violence runs rampant in the United States and fears of safety at school naturally follows. This has resulted in conflicted parents, scared students, and communities mourning over lives taken away. On December 16, 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow opened fire in a second-floor study hall at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison. Two people were left dead and six were injured before she was killed. Motives are unknown on why the shooting happened, but the concern stays on the issue of school safety all around.
These events strike chords of fear among families and staff, including English teacher Abigail Van Eeckhout.
“It’s absolutely terrifying,” she said. “My perspective on school shootings changed as a parent.”
Staff and students alike have been feeling conflicted about how safe they really are at school, a location that is aimed to be a safe haven. Van Eeckhout affirms the turmoil it has created for her as a teacher.
“You have the double edge sword,” she said. “You know, really loving and believing in the school system and wanting your child to be a part of it, while also feeling like you are putting them in danger with the knowledge that anything could happen on any day.”
Van Eeckhout speaks from the perspective of both a teacher and a parent, and how that complicates her thought process in an emergency situation.
“Do I either save myself as a mother, for my child, or save everyone I've grown to love in my classroom? I think really my duty is to the number of people in my classroom instead of my son,” she said. “It’s a very complex question.”
Junior Luci Nunez is one of many that has lost a degree of trust in their peers.
“I think it's just the fact of not knowing what somebody has on them,” she said. “Especially with backpacks or baggy pants or hoodies. People normally carry things like a phone or whatnot, but you don't know what they have for certain.”
Sophomore Shayla Schrock agrees with Nunez's feelings of uncertainty.
“I'm always paranoid about who’s in the school and what they could have,” she said.
Prominent instances of gun violence in schools have also given way to a change in what students bring on campus in order to protect themselves, Schrock notices.
“I see people in my classes with bulletproof backpacks and that shouldn't be a necessity to have in school,” she said.
The frequency and tragedy of deadly incidents across the country has led to questions about the root causes of violent behavior. Van Eeckhout believes that it is linked to emotional and psychological issues present in a person or set of views.
“It feels like one of the warning signs of extremism could be having blind hatred toward any group. You know, believing all people of one type are evil and so forth,” she said. “Losing that logical empathy for other people.”
Schrock hopes for more preventative measures that should be taken at the school to ensure the safety of all who come and go at West.
“I feel like we need metal detectors and things like that. We get checked for who we are sometimes, but they don’t really do a search to see if we have anything we’re not supposed to have,” she said.
by Kaylee Beck
Published February 3rd, 2025
Oshkosh West Index Volume 121 Issue IV