Article February 4, 2002 Issue

Listening, with arms WIDE open

How a teacher's tough love for her students helped prevent another high school tragedy

BY Warren Bolon, Sentinel Staff writer

WHEN RACHEL JUPIN comes to the door, she greets me with a tired and wary smile. It's the smile of someone who's been under siege long enough to know it helps to laugh about it. After welcoming photographer Ari Denison and me she says, "If you guys stay long enough, we'll ask you to help take down the Christmas decorations."

Christmas was 15 days ago. The Jupins' Christmas tree is bare, strings of lights are in boxes, but the candles and angels haven't been put away. Although the Jupins are a deeply religious family, what Ari and I navigate past are less the remnants of the traditional 12 days of Christmas plus three, and more a silent witness to a family's priorities forcibly changed by intense media attention.

Rachel Jupin is the English teacher at New Bedford (Massachusetts) High School who was instrumental in uncovering a copycat Columbine High School attack, which allegedly had been plotted by five students. One of those students, Amylee Bowman, eventually confided in Jupin. For one simple reason. Jupin cared about Amy the way a mom cares about her rebellious, but deep-down-good, daughter.

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