Another School Shooting. Another Mental Health Failure.
December 18, 2024
Having covered school shootings for decades, it is encouraging that mental health information is being made public in record time. Just two days since the shooting in Madison Wisconsin and the fact that the shooter was receiving therapy has already hit the news cycle.
Fifteen-year-old Natalie (Samantha) Rupnow, the reported shooter at the Abundant Life Christian School, who opened fire on her fellow students and teachers, killing two and wounding six others, apparently was a pawn in her parent’s marital troubles. An unhappy kid to say the least.
According to a Washington Post report, the shooter’s parents married and divorced three times. The last divorce in 2021 provided a custody agreement that had the 15-year-old shuttling between each parent’s home every two or three days. And, given there was a custody case, it comes with the territory that the State’s Family Services Department would become involved. Another clue that the state became involved in Natalie’s welfare is that the parents were involved in mediation and according to the Post “Natalie had been enrolled in therapy, which was supposed to help guide decisions about which parent she would spend weekends with…”
