Teachers, parents and public still want answers about Perry school shooting

Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council and can be reached at [email protected].

Five months have passed since a 17-year-old Perry High School student walked out of the school bathroom and began shooting at students who were eating breakfast before heading to class in the morning from January 4, 2024.

The first details of the tragedy were barely beginning to emerge when the first questions began. And six months later, most of these questions remain.

Where did Dylan Butler find the guns he used that day?

Who did the weapons belong to?

Did his parents know he had access to guns?

Were there any signs before this morning that Butler might be thinking about violence?

Had he been the target of bullying by other students?

These questions, and many more, have been asked and asked again and again by residents of Perry and the surrounding areas. This includes parents, grandparents, teachers, other school employees and countless residents who are all horrified by what happened in their community.

The Iowa Freedom of Information Council has received phone calls from journalists involved in the shooting since learning of the events within minutes of the initial 911 calls. I have heard the concerns of members of the community – and from a Perry High School teacher who called my office last week.

He was at school that horrible day. He knew the young people and adults who were shot. He is hungry for information about the findings detectives gathered during six months of interviews, analysis of social media posts and cell phone data. And he's exasperated by the refusal of state and local law enforcement officials to share the facts they've gathered and the conclusions they've reached.

Above all, he wants to know what the investigation revealed so that everyone can learn lessons from this tragedy.

It was the worst mass shooting at an Iowa school since 1991. Dylan Butler fatally shot sixth grader Ahmir Jolliff and Perry High School principal Dan Marburger. Four other students and two other school employees were injured by gunfire.

Butler had committed suicide by the time officers located him inside the school.

Before that January morning, Iowa's worst school shooting occurred in 1991 when Gang Lu, an angry University of Iowa physics student, killed three department faculty members of physics, a graduate student in physics, an associate vice president of the university, and a student working outside the official office. desk.

School shootings were much less common in the United States in 1991. The public and journalists around the world asked university officials and law enforcement investigators many questions about the Iowa City tragedy.

So it's no surprise that parents, teachers and many other Iowans want to know what investigators have learned since Jan. 4 about the events leading up to the Perry High School shooting. People want to know what school administrators and law enforcement officials learned from the investigation, knowledge that could help reduce the likelihood of future tragedies.

Naturally, parents and grandparents, aunts, uncles and neighbors want to know the details that will help them process the events that took place in a place that has such a central role in the community.

Without officials sharing their findings with the public, it is difficult, if not impossible, to judge how prepared law enforcement and school officials are to protect students in this era of nearly unlimited access to fire arms. Without access to reliable and accurate information provided by investigators, people are unsure whether the rumors that naturally arise after a tragedy of this magnitude deserve to be believed.

Without accurate, authoritative information, people don't know whether authorities missed signals that Dylan Butler posed a danger to himself or his school. People aren't sure if he needed more attention from school officials and law enforcement than he received. And the public also doesn't know if reports that Butler was bullied by fellow students are accurate.

Details like these are important – not to point fingers, but so that communities know when and how they could prevent similar tragedies in their own schools.

The Perry High School teacher who called me last week was seeking advice after the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation denied his request for information about its six-month investigation. His questions were met with a response of “Sorry, I can’t tell you.” The DCI official told him that sharing the results could inform potential future shooters about how they could circumvent security protocols in place to protect students and school employees.

Often, authorities hide details of a criminal investigation from the public in order to protect the accused shooter's right to a fair trial. Many questions about a crime are answered publicly for the first time during a trial.

But because Butler committed suicide, there will be no criminal charges or trial. The public will have no opportunity to obtain answers in this forum.

DCI officials declined to provide updates on their investigation. Perry's teacher said the DCI official was noncommittal on whether the agency would release even a summary of its investigation.

No one wants to jeopardize the future safety of students and school staff. No one wants to provide a plan for a future school shooting to someone who might be considering such a horrific action.

But there must be a balance between making all the details public and not disclosing any information from an investigation. This is not how the government should treat the public and the concerned parents and loved ones of Iowa schoolchildren.

Top photo of Perry High School is by Richc80, available via Wikimedia Commons