Carmen Schentrup, 16, a student at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and youth group leader at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Coral Springs, died of gunshot wounds on Feb. 14 during a mass shooting at her school.
Schentrup was a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist, one of 10 in her school. She had survived major surgery on her leg at 12, but a statement from her family said she never tried to hide the scars. Instead, she would tell inquirers that she got them “running with the bulls.”
Described as bright, friendly, and quick-witted, Schentrup decided to learn German and taught herself the language. “Last summer, she planned our family vacation to Germany and played the role of translator and guide,” her parents said.
Angelyse Perez, who was best friends with Schentrup early in high school, told the Miami Herald that peers “always used to tell her she was going to get into Harvard or something.”
The student’s parents said she intended to become a scientist. “She wanted to become a medical scientist and discover a cure for horrible diseases, like ALS. She was going to change the world.”
Schentrup’s funeral was held at St. Andrew Catholic Church in Coral Springs, as her family believed Schentrup’s Episcopal church would be too small for the service. St. Andrew’s also proved too small, with many standing at the service, the Herald reported. Dozens of students left the funeral via charter buses in the church parking lot, bound for the state capital of Tallahassee to fight for gun reform.
“She is counting on all of us to pick up where she left off,” the Rev. Canon Mark Sims, rector of St. Mary Magdalene, said in his sermon at the funeral.
“To our dear Carmen, you are a bright, beautiful, young woman bursting into the world,” Schentrup’s family wrote. “You are an amazing daughter, sister, and friend. You fill our lives with loving memories that we will always cherish. You are a gift from God and into His arms you return. May His divine embrace now hug you so very tenderly where we cannot. We love and miss you dearly.”
The others killed on Feb. 14 were:
- Alyssa Alhadeff, 14
- Scott Beigel, 35
- Martin Duque Anguiano, 14
- Nicholas Dworet, 17
- Aaron Feis, 37
- Jaime Guttenberg, 14
- Christopher Hixon, 49
- Luke Hoyer, 15
- Cara Loughran, 14
- Gina Montalto, 14
- Joaquin Oliver, 17
- Alaina Petty, 14
- Meadow Pollack, 18
- Helena Ramsay, 17
- Alex Schachter, 14
- Peter Wang, 15
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
