Community remembers teacher killed in Wisconsin school shooting as Christian with Southern roots

By TODD RICHMOND The Associated Press

Nate Kaloupek, a friend of Erin Michelle West and staff member at DOXA Church, speaks at her funeral on Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Fitchburg, Wis. (Owen Ziliak/Wisconsin State Journal via AP)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Owen Ziliak]

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Family and friends said their final farewells Monday to a substitute teacher killed in a shooting at a private religious school in Wisconsin last week, describing her as a devout Christian with Southern roots who made copious notes in her personal Bible and planned to take her children to Disney World next year.

Erin Michelle West, 42, was killed on Dec. 16 when 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow opened fire with a handgun at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison. A 14-year-old student, Rubi Vergara, also was killed and six others were wounded before Rupnow turned the gun on herself. Rupnow was a first-semester student at the school. Investigators are still trying to piece together her motive.

Scores of people attended West’s midday funeral at Doxa Church in Fitchburg, a Madison suburb. West’s casket was set up before a stage decorated with Christmas trees adorned with golden lights. A giant photograph of her was displayed on a screen above the stage throughout the hourlong service.

Rob Warren, the church’s pastor, fought back tears as he welcomed people.

“In a sense, no one wants to be here,” he said. “But in another sense I believe we’re all supposed to be here right now, to hurt and heal together. As painful as it is, I believe we really all do need this moment.”

People raise their hands during song at the funeral for Erin Michelle West on Monday, Dec. 23, 2024 at DOXA Church in Fitchburg, Wis. (Owen Ziliak/Wisconsin State Journal via AP)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Owen Ziliak

According to West’s obituary, she was born in St. Charles, Missouri, and graduated from Kennesaw State University in 2005. She married her husband, Jack, in 2005, in Powder Springs, Georgia. The couple has three daughters.

Warren read several verses from West’s personal Bible, remarking on all the handwritten notes and underlined sections throughout. He said that after Jack West gave him the Bible, the first page he turned to had the phrase “the Gospel is for everyone” written in blue ink.

“This is what Erin West was about,” the pastor said, adding later: “Erin is in heaven right now with Jesus and she’s more alive than she ever has been and that’s the truth.”

Nate Kaloupek, Doxa Church’s director of leadership development and equipping, gave a short elegy, describing how Erin met Jack in an online Christian chatroom and how Jack’s company, Cardinal Glass, moved the couple around the country, first to Oklahoma and the Pacific Northwest before they settled in Wisconsin about six years ago.

Struggling at times to find his voice, Kaloupek said Erin loved the fast food restaurant chain Chick-fil-A and she showed her Georgia roots often by quipping “love y’all” or “hey, y’all.”

He joked that Erin was “really bad” at hiding her emotions and felt God had called her to work at ALCS. She led prayers for people in their church group and tracked what prayers were answered, he said.

She loved camping trips with her family, wine-tasting trips with her husband and was looking forward to taking their daughters to Disney World this spring, he added, before concluding the elegy with: “She’d want me to say ‘love y’all.’ Thank you.”