A school shooting halfway across the country is reverberating in Lewis County.

The Fords Prairie Elementary School and Centralia Christian School communities and others in Lewis County are joining the residents of Madison, Wisconsin, in mourning Erin Michele West, the Abundant Life Christian School teacher who was killed in a school shooting on Monday.

West had previously lived in Lewis County with her husband and children.

West, 42, of DeForest, Wisconsin, and 14-year-old Rubi Patricia Vergara were killed by 15-year-old student Natalie

Rupnow, who opened fire in a classroom, according to reporting by the Wisconsin State Journal. Five other students and one other teacher were wounded in the shooting.

The news has been difficult for Centralia area residents who knew the West family while they lived in Lewis County between 2006 and 2018.

At the time, Erin West’s husband, Jack West, was the manager of Cardinal Glass in Winlock.

Erin West was a substitute teacher at Fords Prairie Elementary School in Centralia in 2006, joining the staff as a full-time teacher from 2007 to 2009.

“She was one of the finest human beings I have had the privilege of hiring and knowing,” said Fords Prairie Principal David Roberts.

Fourteen of the school’s current staff members, including Roberts, worked closely with West.

“We are devastated,” Roberts said. “She touched many lives, instilled a love of learning and delivered on building dreams for our students.”

West left her position at Fords Prairie Elementary School to become a stay-at-home mom for her three children, who attended Centralia Christian School.

“She was a very active parent in the school,” former Centralia Christian School Principal Anne Stout said of Erin West. “She was just a great volunteer. Loved the Lord with all her heart and served in whatever way she could.”

West was deeply involved in her childrens’ education and volunteered in her community.

“She was just a bright ray of sunshine when she came in. She’s the kind of parent that every teacher and principal loves to have in the school, because she gave and gave and never asked for anything in return,” Stout said.

West was born on Sept. 10, 1982, in St. Charles, Missouri, according to an obituary published by Gunderson Funeral and Cremation Care.

She graduated from Harrison High School in 2000 and went on to graduate from Kennesaw State University in 2005. She married Jack West on May 21, 2005, in Powder Springs, Georgia. The couple had three daughters: Emery, Laurel and Adleigh.

“If her daughters were doing stuff, she was there, being a part of it,” said Sherrie Conrad, who taught first grade to two of West’s three daughters.

“My daughter babysat a little bit for her. We were talking yesterday, and she was like, ‘Oh mom, I need to write the girls a letter. I need them to understand how much their mother was in the court for them, and how much she did for them, and how proud she was of them,’” Conrad said.

Conrad stayed in touch with the Wests after they moved back home to the Midwest. She received a Christmas card from the family shortly before learning of West’s death.

After hearing Wednesday that The Dane County Medical Examiner had identified West as the teacher killed in the Abundant Life Christian School shooting on Monday, Conrad said, “I was like, ‘It can’t be. I just got her Christmas card.’”

West returned to her teaching career after her youngest daughter started school. She worked as a teacher for Abundant Life Christian School for four years.

In a statement published by the Wisconsin State Journal, Abundant Life Christian School (ALCS) wrote:

"ALCS is a better school for the work of Erin West … She brought her love of Jesus and love of people to our staff and school family all wrapped in a hug and topped with a smile. She faithfully served as a substitute teacher for three years before accepting a staff position as ALCS' Sub Coordinator and In-Building Substitute Teacher, a role tailor-made for her abundant skills and breadth of knowledge. She served our teachers and students with grace, humor, wisdom, and — most importantly — with the love of Jesus. Her loss is a painful and deep one and she will be greatly missed not just among our staff, but our entire ALCS family."

West’s memorial service will take place at the church she was a member of, Doxa Church, in Madison, Wisconsin, on Dec. 23.

Memorials may be made to the Doxa Forward Campaign at https://www.doxaforward.com/.  Online condolences can be made at https://tinyurl.com/yv82hrf7.