It’s been a week since the sirens faded at Perry High School. Most people have already moved on to the next news cycle, which is honestly the most heartbreaking part of how we handle these things now. We see a headline, feel a pit in our stomachs for a few hours, and then check our emails. But for the families in Perry, Iowa, the "last week" everyone is talking about is a permanent fracture in their lives. It isn't just a news segment. It's an empty chair at the breakfast table.
The facts are stark, and they’re heavy. On January 4, 2024, a 17-year-old student opened fire on the first day back from winter break. It happened early—around 7:37 a.m.—before most classes had even started. This timing meant the middle school and high school, which share a campus, were caught in that weird, vulnerable limbo of morning arrivals. We know now that 11-year-old Ahmir Jolliff was killed. We know that seven others were injured, including the school's principal, Dan Marburger, who acted with incredible bravery to distract the shooter so students could run.
But why are we still seeing these patterns? If you look at the data from the K-12 School Shooting Database, the "first day back" or "return from break" periods are notoriously high-risk windows. Yet, our national conversation usually bypasses the logistics of school scheduling and dives straight into the same tired political silos. We're missing the nuance.
What the Perry High School Shooting Reveals About Modern Threats
Most people think these events are sudden snaps. They aren't. While the shooting last week felt like a bolt from the blue to the public, digital forensics almost always show a trail of breadcrumbs. In the Perry case, the shooter had been active on TikTok, posting a selfie in a bathroom stall with a duffel bag shortly before the attack. The caption was "now we wait."
This is a specific phenomenon that experts like Dr. Jillian Peterson and James Densley, founders of The Violence Project, have been shouting from the rooftops about for years. These aren't just "crimes"; they are performative acts of social suicide. The shooter wants an audience. They are looking for a way to turn their internal pain into a public spectacle.
When we talk about "the school shooting last week," we have to acknowledge that the internet has changed the "contagion effect." In the past, you'd worry about local copycats. Now, a kid in a completely different time zone can see those TikTok posts and feel a dark sense of kinship. It’s a loop. It feeds itself. And honestly, our obsession with the shooter's manifesto or their social media handles often provides exactly what they wanted: immortality through infamy.
The Myth of the "Loner"
We love the "loner" narrative. It’s easy. It lets us put the blame on a single person who "didn't fit in." But that's a dangerous oversimplification. Many school shooters have friend groups. Many are involved in extracurriculars. The shooter in Iowa wasn't a ghost in the hallways. People knew him.
The real issue is often leakage. Leakage is when a person tells a third party about their intent to do harm. It happens in about 80% of school shooting cases. Someone heard something. Someone saw a post. Someone felt "off" about a comment in the locker room. In Perry, the investigation is still unearthing who knew what, but the pattern suggests that the signals were there, just untranslated.
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The Principal’s Sacrifice and the Reality of School Security
Principal Dan Marburger is a name you should remember. He didn't just "get caught in the crossfire." He jumped into it. By all accounts, he tried to talk the shooter down, using himself as a shield to buy time for the kids in the cafeteria.
This brings up a massive point of contention in school safety: Does "hardening" schools actually work?
Perry had some security measures. They had a school resource officer. But the shooting happened during breakfast, a time when kids are naturally congregated in open spaces. You can have the best locks in the world, but if the shooter is a student who is already inside the perimeter, the locks don't do much.
- Physical Security: Things like metal detectors and cameras are reactive. They help after the fact or act as a mild deterrent.
- Behavioral Intervention: This is the proactive side. It's about Threat Assessment Teams. It’s about teachers knowing how to spot the difference between "teenage angst" and "pre-attack behavior."
The reality is that "security" is often a theater we perform to feel better. True safety comes from the social fabric of the school itself. If a student feels connected to at least one adult in the building, the likelihood of them committing a violent act drops significantly. That’s not "soft" science; it’s a statistical reality found in Secret Service reports on school violence.
Mental Health is Only One Piece of the Puzzle
Whenever a school shooting happens, the "mental health" card is played immediately. And yeah, it matters. It matters a lot. But let's be real: Millions of teenagers struggle with depression, anxiety, and trauma without ever picking up a weapon.
If we only focus on mental health, we ignore the means.
The weapon used in the school shooting last week was a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun. These aren't "weapons of war" in the way an AR-15 is often described, yet they were devastatingly effective in a crowded cafeteria. We have to look at the intersection of three things:
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- The Grievance: Why is this person angry?
- The Crisis: What happened recently to make them feel like they have no future?
- The Access: How did a 17-year-old get a shotgun and a handgun on a Thursday morning?
In Iowa, gun laws are relatively permissive, and "red flag" laws—which allow family or police to temporarily remove firearms from someone in crisis—don't exist in the state. This isn't just a political talking point; it's a structural reality that dictated the outcome of that morning.
The Ripple Effect on Small Towns
Perry is a town of about 8,000 people. In a place that size, everyone knows someone who was in that building. The trauma isn't localized to the victims; it blankets the entire zip code.
When a shooting happens in a city like Chicago or LA, it's a tragedy. When it happens in Perry, it’s an identity crisis. The "it can’t happen here" mentality dies a violent death. And we saw that last week. The community vigils at the local churches weren't just for mourning; they were for trying to figure out how to be "Perry" again.
Moving Beyond "Thoughts and Prayers"
We’re all tired of that phrase. It feels hollow because it usually is. If you actually want to do something about the school shooting last week and the ones that will inevitably follow if we don't change, you have to look at the "Swiss Cheese Model" of accident prevention.
Imagine several slices of Swiss cheese lined up. Each slice is a layer of protection: a secure door, a mental health counselor, a responsible gun owner, a student who speaks up. Usually, the holes don't align. But when they do, a tragedy passes through. Our job isn't to find one "perfect" slice of cheese; it's to make sure the holes in our current layers are as small as possible.
Actionable Steps for Parents and Educators
If you're reading this and feeling helpless, you're not. There are specific things that actually move the needle.
1. Normalize "See Something, Say Something" without the stigma. Kids are terrified of being "snitches." We have to reframe it. Reporting a concern isn't about getting someone in trouble; it's about getting them help before they do something they can't take back. Programs like Say Something from Sandy Hook Promise have actually stopped dozens of planned attacks that never made the news.
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2. Demand Threat Assessment Teams, not just guards.
Ask your school board if they have a multidisciplinary team that includes a psychologist, a principal, and law enforcement. This team shouldn't just punish kids; they should manage the threat. If a kid is making threats, what is the plan to de-escalate their life?
3. Safe Storage is non-negotiable.
If there are guns in your home, they must be locked, unloaded, and separate from ammunition. Period. Most school shooters get their weapons from their own home or the home of a relative. This is the simplest, most effective way to prevent a school shooting.
4. Limit the Media Diet.
Stop sharing the shooter's name. Stop looking for the "manifesto." Every time we click on those things, we tell the next troubled kid that this is the path to being noticed. Focus on Ahmir Jolliff. Focus on Dan Marburger.
The school shooting last week in Perry was a failure of multiple systems at once. It was a failure of digital oversight, a failure of firearm accessibility, and a failure of our ability to intervene in a young man's escalating crisis. We can't fix the past, but we can stop treating these events like natural disasters that we're powerless to prevent. They are man-made, and they have man-made solutions.
The next few weeks will be hard for Iowa. The cameras will leave, the flowers will wilt, and the town will be left to pick up the pieces. The best way to honor those lost isn't to argue on the internet. It's to go to your own local school board meeting and ask: "What is our plan for a student in crisis?"
If they don't have a clear, documented answer, that's where you start. Don't wait for the next "last week" to happen in your town.