On January 4th, just 20 minutes before the Perry School District would start school back from break, a shooting would occur. Seventeen-year-old gunman, Dylan Butler, took his life and injured six others. Butler took the life of a 6th grader at Perry Middle School, Ahmir Jolliff. The principal, Dan Marburger, would also succumb to his injuries on January 14th.
“It’s scary having a shooting so close to our school. It feels more real because normally you hear about it and it’s some school from far away,” senior Aubrey Gradin said.
The Perry School shooting wasn’t the first school shooting in Iowa. Although, the past school shootings have been non-related to the school, or have not ended in deaths.
“I don’t feel different about it compared to any away from here.[…] It doesn’t make me nervous any more than that would be if it happened in California,” security guard Ricky Terrell said.
As school shootings have become more prevalent, the A.L.I.C.E. training has transitioned to Run Hide Fight. This strategy was used by students at Perry and throughout the country.
“I think we do enough training and do what’s right in the situation. But when we do the drills it’s taken more as a joke and a break from class,” Gradin said.
The training is done twice a year, the state’s law. While some think that’s enough, not all do.
“We don’t do a whole lot of training, and people don’t take it seriously. Students here like to screw around rather than do what they should be doing,” junior Jackson Coppinger said.
Articles read that students who were stuck in the counseling office, hid behind the desk with books to throw at the shooter. This is the exact format of the Run Hide Fight training.
“I think every school does the amount of training necessary for it. Until something happens you may not know that you might need more training. […] Yeah, so you never know. I mean, we think we train enough to know what to do,” Terrell said.
While the tragedy at Perry High School ended in the loss of two people. The training of Run Hide Fight helped save the lives of many.
