After the school shooting in Perry, Iowa, more information and bravery stories came out.
A 17-year-old student killed a sixth-grader and hurt seven others in a school shooting in Iowa. The town is shocked and coming together after the shooting. Authorities say the student killed himself with a gun. Of course, there are still a lot of questions about what happened and how it happened, but some facts have come to light.
What you need to know about the shooting at Perry High School on Thursday:
Based on what the police and school officials say, a young student with a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber pistol opened fire at Perry High School just after 7:30 a.m. Thursday, not long before the first day of classes after winter break. Mitch Mortvedt, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said the shooting began in the cafeteria, where students from different grades were eating breakfast. The shooting then spread to the outside of the cafeteria.
A lot of kids who have been through gun crime have trouble getting mental health care.
Ohmir Jolliff, 11, was shot three times and died. Details about where he was at the time of the shooting have not been made public. Six people, including Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger, two staff members, and four teenage students, got injuries that ranged from serious to minor. Dylan Butler, the high school student who was confirmed as the shooter, died of what looked like a gunshot to the head.
In addition, Butler had what the police called a “rudimentary” homemade bomb that was not working.
The police said they think Butler did it by himself.
Stories about people who don’t care about themselves
The government hasn’t said much about what happened in the school, but brave and selfless stories are starting to come out.
According to the police, Marburger, who has been headmaster since 1995, put himself in danger to protect the children. Clark Wicks, the superintendent of schools in Perry, called Marburger a “hero” for stopping Butler so the children could get away. Some staff members, like Middle School Assistant Principal Adam Jessen, did brave things too, according to Wicks. Jessen “carried a wounded student into a safe area.”
The Iowa director who was seriously hurt in the school shooting put himself in danger to protect the children.
Claire Marburger, the daughter of the director, wrote on Facebook Friday night that cards from students and people in the community were coming in. Her favorite said, “Not all heroes wear capes; some are the school principal.” This made her and her family laugh and smile.
Bobbi Bushbaum, a mother, wrote on Facebook that her son Corey had been shot several times but had been able to stumble to a nearby field. When she got there, she saw other people helping him get to an ambulance. She thanked them and told them, “My son wouldn’t be here without them.”
But a police officer who was briefed on the case said that federal and state agents were talking to Butler’s friends and looking at his social media accounts, such as his posts on TikTok and Reddit. An official said that Butler shared a video on TikTok from inside a Perry High School bathroom not long before the shooting on Thursday. “Now We Wait” was written under the picture, and the German band KMFDM’s song “Stray Bullet” played in the background. The source, who was not allowed to talk about the case publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, also said that investigators found posted photos of Butler posing with guns.
The AP talked to Butler’s mother and two friends, who said she was a quiet person who had been picked on since grade school. Yesenia Roeder and Khamya Hall, two 17-year-old sisters, and their mother Alita said that things got worse when Butler’s younger sister started being picked on too.
Wicks wouldn’t say if Butler had been bullied, but he did support how his school system handles bullying.
“We take every case of bullying very seriously, and our goal is to always have a safe and welcoming space,” Wicks told reporters on Friday.
The boy who died
Ahmir Jolliff, whose family called him “Smiley,” was always happy and busy. The 11-year-old ran out of his house Thursday morning, excited to see his friends on the first day back. Erica Jolliff, his mother, told the AP that he loved sports, played the tuba, and sang in choir. He would often touch someone on the shoulder and ask how their day was going.
Ahmir was shot three times. He went to the middle school that was linked to the high school.
She remarked, “So many people loved him.” “He’s such a friendly person.”
A group of people get together.
On Friday, Perry Mayor Dirk Cavanaugh said he was sure that his town would get through this hard time together.
“Even though we are a small town, we will work together to get through this,” Cavanaugh told the press.
Three bridges in Des Moines are being lit up in blue, which is the official school color of the Perry district. This is a show of support for Perry.
“As you pass by or visit the blue-lit bridges over the next week, please take a moment to think about the families whose safety and sense of normalcy were shattered by the shooting at Perry High School,” Des Moines Mayor Connie Boesen said Saturday.
Perry is about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of Des Moines and is home to about 8,000 people. More kinds of people live there than in all of Iowa. It’s home to a big pork processing plant. According to the census, 31% of the people are Hispanic, while less than 7% of the state’s population is Hispanic. Almost 19% were not born in the United States.
Plans for school
Wicks said that the high school will be closed all this week so that it can be cleaned and fixed. He said that the earliest that elementary and high school classes could start again is Friday.
The political setting
The killings have made the state’s first-ever Republican presidential caucuses on January 15 less likely to go as planned.
As candidates toured the state Thursday and Friday, questions about the shooting kept coming up, but they didn’t stop them from making their cases to people going to the conservative caucus. It shows that Republicans don’t want to put limits on guns and that school shootings have become very regular.
In two CNN town halls on Thursday night, guns were the first thing people asked both Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. Both of them said that more mental health programs and school safety were needed as answers.
At a gathering in Sioux Center, Iowa, on Friday night, former President Donald Trump briefly talked about the killing.
Trump said, “That was a terrible thing to happen.” “And it’s really bad. To see that take place. That looks really bad. It’s so strange to see it here. We need to move on, though. We need to move on. We need to move on.
Credit: by Google News