BROCKPORT, N.Y. — Three people are dead, including a female juvenile shooter who attended the school, and six others were sent to area hospitals for injuries after a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wis., the Madison Police Department said earlier this week.
This is at least the 83rd school shooting in the United States this year. The country has had record-breaking numbers of school shootings every year since 2021, according to an analysis from CNN. That’s left law enforcement, families and schools uneased.
“You think this will never happen here, but when it happens in another Christian School, it’s like, 'Oh, yeah, that brings it home,” said Chris Johnson, the principal of Cornerstone Christian Academy. “Certainly, being a Christian school doesn't exempt us, obviously. But we do have that faith trust as well, that God is going to watch over us. That doesn't help explain why it would happen in one place and not another. So it's not an absolute answer. But we just talked about all of those things.”
The school was established 42 years ago. Johnson’s been around just as long and says he often fills into roles as needed, including school pastor, security and teacher. Tuesday morning, he started the day in group prayer with his colleagues. They would all conduct a lockdown practice drill later in the morning.
“The importance of training so that it becomes kind of second nature to them,” Johnson said. “All the doors get closed. There are blinds on the door windows, that get closed. The kids have a place in the room that they will hide that's out of view of the windows and whatever. And they're supposed to be very quiet. We have some stuff in the classroom that the teachers can use as a defense tool if someone actually does get in.”
Johnson says teachers arrived to work concerned after Monday’s shooting, but many of the students weren’t as affected.
“With the older kids, we just had a discussion and they didn't seem particularly, frightened," he said. "Oh, this could happen here, but that’s kind of in the back of their minds and whatever."
But training for these tragedies continues. The school performs multiple throughout the year to ensure everyone knows the protocol.
“It’s a continual reminder to the teachers to always be vigilant, pay attention to what's going on, and sometimes that's just kids horsing around.," Johnson said. "And so you see that and can resolve that. But if something of greater consequence happens, then you are prepared and anybody can report if they see something that's amiss. And then we can deal with it."
The school utilizes security measures like heavily locked doors, security cameras, the PA system and two-way radios to communicate during a threat. Johnson says he and another male colleague usually man the doors to ensure everyone who goes in and out of the building is supposed to be there.
“There are things that we could do that would be beneficial if we had the funding to do them," he said. "But as I’m sure everybody knows private schools, they’re paying tuition, but they still have to pay their school taxes and stuff as well. So to ask more in order to do some of those things would be hard."
Private schools in New York do not qualify for the state’s Safe Schools Against Violence in Education Act, which sets guidelines for code of conducts, safety plans, and even security protocols like fingerprinting visitors, workers, and volunteers.
For now, the school will continue to overly prepare to ensure the safety of their school.
“There's this sort of camaraderie, community feeling among Christian schools, I think," Johnson said. "And so it really hits home maybe more than if it was a public school. Maybe not, because it’s still such a tragedy. But it makes it more personal, I suppose, if anything else. And so mostly it just pushed us all to pray for the families there. [It] doesn't matter if even they're the same faith issue. The tragedy is kind of a universal theme. And so, [we] just really pray for them. [We] pray for the feeling of peace and safety to be restored.”