Perry High school shooting: How long should the school stay closed?
There is no playbook for school officials to decide when students should return to classes. Multiple factors can drive this decision.
As authorities release more information about the shooting at Perry High School in Iowa on January 4, the number of victims has increased to reach a grim threshold. Perry High is now one of 31 school shootings with eight or more victims.
Planning for Closures
Since the shooting on the first day back from winter break, all schools in the Perry Community School District have been closed. The superintendent announced Friday that the elementary and middle schools will reopen as early as Jan. 12. A return date for high school students has not been determined.
There is no standard playbook for how long schools should remain closed after a shooting inside the building. Closures can range from a couple days to never reopening. Here are a few examples:
Robb Elementary (TX): Never reopened, entire school will be demolished
Covenant School (TN): 10 months (still closed)
CVPA High School (MO): 9 months
STEM High School (CO): 3 months
Saugus High School (CA): 3 weeks
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High (FL): Multi-building campus closed for 2 weeks. Building where the shooting occurred scheduled to be demolished 6 years later.
Edmund Burke School (DC): 2 weeks
One factor that drives school closures is the amount of damage the shooting causes inside the building. For example, the teenage shooter at CVPA High in St. Louis fired more than 200 rounds with an AR-15 rifle inside the 3rd floor of the school. The rounds went through walls and broke dozens of windows.
At the Edmund Burke School in Washington, DC, dozens of rounds fired by a sniper broke the glass on a bridge connecting campus buildings. There was minimal damage to other parts of the school and students were back in class within 2 weeks.
Crime Scene and Investigation
A school can’t reopen until the police are finished processing the crime scene. This can involve taking photos, measurements, and removing bullets or shotgun pellet fragments from ceilings and walls. A crude explosive device was also detonated and police will need to find and reassemble all of the pieces of the bomb. Additionally, there is a lengthy process to interview the witnesses.
The teenage shooter at Perry High died by suicide inside the school so there is no criminal investigation against the shooter to pursue. This doesn’t mean that evidence doesn’t need to be preserved because other people may face criminal or civil action. Parties involved in past and ongoing litigation after school shootings include:
Parents/relatives: criminal charged if the gun used was purchases for the teen or accessible inside the home. Sued by families of victims for damages.
School administrators: civil lawsuits for failing to implement safety programs.
School counselors: attempts at criminal charges and successful lawsuits for failing to properly screen and take appropriate action to identify a high risk student.
School police officers: criminal charges and lawsuits for failing to take action to prevent shootings, and failing to respond during shootings.
Impacts of prolonged closure
Perry, Iowa is a rural community 30 miles outside of Des Moines. The town is a Certified Economic Development Site which gives businesses incentives to operate in the area. About 11% of the households are single mothers and 30% speak English as a second language per US Census.
At Perry High, nearly half of the students are classified as economically disadvantaged and are enrolled in the free lunch program.
When a school is closed, a single parent is either unable to go to work or needs to find child care. In an economically disadvantaged household, free lunch at school may be the primary meal for a child. Each day of a closure is a significant hardship for these families and students.
Lost learning
Perry High is below the Iowa state average in test schools for math, reading, and science.
For each day the school is closed, some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged students in the state are missing opportunities for learning. When many of the students at Perry High are already behind state averages, an extended closure sets them back even further.
Time away from the school community also means that students are isolated during a traumatic period as many of them witnessed the shooting and have classmates and teachers who were killed or wounded.
When should Perry High reopen?
After a shooting, school officials need to balance an ongoing criminal investigation, repairs to the building, and emotional trauma with the educational and economic needs of students and families. In a disadvantaged community where many students are already behind, each day the school is closed can profoundly impact their futures.
More About Perry High
If you are interested in learning more about how the shooting at Perry High follows the same patterns as other attacks over the last 60 years, here is a link to my interview on Iowa Public Radio. During the 20 minute interview we discussed:
School shootings are deliberately planned for weeks, months, or even years
Ineffectiveness of fortifying school buildings
School shootings are different from terrorism
Most school shooters are not mentally ill
Need for crisis intervention programs
Enabling students and community members to report potential violence
Here is a clip:
David Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database and a national expert on school shootings. Listen to my recent interviews on Freakonomics Radio and the New England Journal of Medicine.