Ahead of the new academic year, staff at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis chose a scriptural theme from the Book of Jeremiah.
“For I know full well the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for your misfortune, plans that will offer you a future filled with hope.”
The final word in that verse – hope – is what educators wanted to emphasize during the school’s 102nd year nurturing the hearts and minds of its young learners. But on Wednesday morning, a lone gunman shot through the windows of Annunciation Church, where students had gathered for Mass during their first week back at school. Two children, ages 8 and 10, were killed. Fourteen other students and three parishioners were injured. The assailant died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound behind the church.
Why We Wrote This
The shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis was the third such tragedy involving a private religious school in as many years. Security has long been top of mind at Jewish and Muslim schools; now there are growing efforts within Christian school communities to fortify their institutions.
Principal Matthew DeBoer at a press conference Wednesday acknowledged the incongruity between the theme for the school year and the tragic attack. He called for prayers and action to halt further violence. “There’s an African proverb that says, ‘when you pray, move your feet,’ he said. “So I beg you. I ask you to please pray, but don’t stop with your words. Let’s make a difference.”
It was an all-too-familiar scene as emotional parents embraced their children outside the school and church – now a crime scene – in the aftermath of the shooting. It’s the third such tragedy involving a private Christian school in as many years, heightening security concerns at education settings outside traditional public schools. Private schools, attended by about 10% of U.S. schoolchildren, have historically experienced fewer school shootings than public schools. With the rise in high-profile incidents, some expect more Christian schools to take a harder look at their security protocols, as many Jewish and Muslim schools long have.
Last December, a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, left a student and teacher dead as well as six others injured. And in March 2023, a former student fatally shot three 9-year-olds and three adults at the Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville.
“We tend to pray our way out of any type of vigilance with that and thinking that it’s not going to happen here because of our faith,” says Chuck Wilson, board chairman for the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS). “We’ve seen … just the opposite, where we’re likely just as vulnerable.”
Examining security measures
Community members came in a steady stream Thursday to lay flowers for the victims at the corner of 54th Street and Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis. One of those people was Diana Soller, whose circle of friends includes many Annunciation alumni and whose late mother often prayed at the same Wednesday morning Mass.
“We all experience angst and pain as children. Our environment is small. And troubled people often strike out at what they know,” she says, referring to reports that indicate the shooter had graduated from the school.
Authorities identified the shooter as 23-year-old Robin Westman, who was born Robert Westman before legally changing their name in 2020. Court documents show the change occurred because the petitioner “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.” A motive has not been established for the shooting, which the perpetrator carried out with three legally purchased firearms. FBI director Kash Patel said it’s being investigated as “an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.”
Safety experts suspect the tragedy will prompt private schools to reexamine their security measures. Mr. Wilson says PASS had already been fielding more inquiries from faith-based school leaders who were assessing their vulnerabilities. He saw that desire firsthand at a Lutheran school in Iowa, where he recently served as a board member. The school, he says, beefed up its security technology with the help of donations.
“Now we’re going to be inundated with people wondering, ‘What could we do? Or what should we do?’” he says, noting the concern of copycat attacks.
Mr. Wilson’s advice isn’t radically different from what PASS would tell public schools. He points them to the organization’s safety and security guidelines, now in its seventh edition. The guidelines cover recommendations for digital and physical hardening, such as window films or glazings that reduce visual access and resist bullets.
Security has been top of mind at Jewish and Muslim schools for years, especially amid a rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia in the United States. But there have been growing efforts within Christian school communities to do the same.
The need for any religious community to devote extensive time and resources to safety disappoints Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
“The Christian community shouldn’t have to learn from the Jewish community how to protect our communities through hardening our boundaries,” he says. “We should, as a society, collectively, number one – get the guns out of the streets, off people’s hands, out of people’s homes.”
Seeking additional funding
More than two years ago, the Minnesota Catholic Conference sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz requesting that nonpublic schools be included in — and allowed to access funding from — a Safe Schools Program. But the Catholic News Agency reported that related bills fizzled in the state legislature, meaning nonpublic schools remained frozen out of additional funding.
The debate over what could have been done at the national, state, or local level to prevent the Annunciation shooting will likely continue for the foreseeable future. Safety experts say a school-level review of security policies is always welcome and needed, especially at the beginning of a new academic year. But they also stress that school shootings, though more common in recent decades and traumatizing for those affected, remain statistically rare.
The Minneapolis tragedy on Wednesday marked the 434th school shooting since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, according to a database compiled by The Washington Post. The list includes a variety of situations, including drive-by shootings and arguments that erupted in gunfire in school parking lots.
The takeaway for all schools, public or private, should be the need for a balancing act, says Amy Klinger, director of programs for the Educator’s School Safety Network.
“We have to be aware and prepared for the potential for gun violence, but also we have to be equally concerned about the things that happen on a daily basis that are also horrific and unacceptable,” she says.
Dr. Klinger cited severe weather and medical emergencies as examples of relatively common situations that require safety planning and training.
Looking beyond exterior security
Physical hardening of school grounds or buildings only goes so far, says Justin Heinze, co-director of the National Center for School Safety at the University of Michigan. He urges education leaders to take a deeper look at school climate and ways to identify threats before they escalate into violence.
In the “vast, vast majority” of cases, school shooters exhibit warning signs before committing the attacks, Mr. Heinze says. Minneapolis Police acknowledged a “suspected manifesto,” allegedly posted online by the Annunciation shooter, that has been taken down by law enforcement as the investigation continues.
“How can we educate students and staff and all those in the school community to look out for those signs and report them, so that there is an intervention before it ever comes to a point where a firearm or other weapon is brought to campus?” Mr. Heinze says.
Part of that may lie in more support and awareness outside of school campuses. Many schools use – and heavily advertise – anonymous reporting systems that encourage a “see something, say something” mindset.
“We don’t typically have that for the broader community,” Mr. Heinze says.
Back in Minneapolis, a community beset by grief has started its healing journey. During a prayer service Wednesday evening, the spiritual leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis pointed to the bravery and love exhibited by the school’s children as a guiding light moving forward.
“When there’s that kind of love, my brothers and sisters, we too can build that house of God,” Archbishop Bernard Hebda said.
Staff writers Patrik Jonsson reported from Minneapolis, Jackie Valley from Las Vegas, and Sophie Hills from Washington.
