On Monday morning, December 16, in Madison, Wisconsin, police responded to a mass shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School. A second grade teacher called 911 at 10:57 a.m. to report the shooting and what was going on at the school. Multiple sources that were in the school at the time of the shooting say that it happened inside of a school classroom and a study hall full of students.

Initially, it was shared that the caller was identified as a 2nd grade student, and because of that, there was a lot of speculation as to why a second grader was the one that called 911. This was later disproved as it was a 2nd grade teacher.

A couple hours after the shooting had happened, they identified the shooter as a 15-year-old by the name of Natalie Rupnow. After the shooting, it was said that she had passed away, on the way to the hospital, from a self-inflicted gun wound. The school had later stated that she was a troubled student. The school also took responsibility for not being able to find those warnings that could’ve helped the school prevent this tragedy from happening.

Sadly, this shooting caused 2 individuals to pass away. One was a teenage student at the school and the other was a teacher. The teacher was a substitute teacher who was there for the day in place of the actual teacher. It is said that the teacher who called in sick feels guilty over the death of the substitute.

There were 5 other students and 1 teacher that was in serious condition and taken to the hospital, and 2 of these students were in life-threatening conditions.

With these school shootings going on, many students around the country are very worried about their safety at school. A pattern recognized in most of these shootings are the mental health problems that are prevalent amongst students.  Many of these students that are responsible for school shootings are struggling with mental health issues.

To make Timpview a safer place, there is one thing that all students can do. We can start with kindness. We can make an effort everyday to make people feel loved. We can become friends with people. We can say hi to people in the hallways and create something that people will never forget.