Iowa School Shooting: How Can We Prevent This?

The principal, who had been in the position since 1995, intervened with the shooter so that students could escape the building. He was called a “hero” by Superintendent Clark Wicks for helping students by putting himself in harm’s way. The principal was injured and passed away several days later. At his funeral, his family was said to have remembered Marburger’s loving and caring nature most of all. Claire Marburger, his daughter, says he portrayed his love through attending every one of her events and through his compassion. Even after his kids went off to college, he would often Venmo them to eat out, or pay for gas; he would even go as far as to drive 3.5 hours to attend his daughter’s college basketball games. Claire stated that if she had one wish from a genie, it would be for “one of [her] dad’s hugs - just a couple seconds to hold him. And he’d hold [her] to kiss [her] on the top of [her] head and tell [her] he was proud ...” Other acts of heroism were completed by other staff members, as the Middle School Assistant Principal was said to have “carried a wounded student into a safe area.”

There is no known motive for Butler’s actions, but after analyzing his social media it was reported that before the tragedy, Butler posted a photo on Tiktok from inside the bathroom of the High School, captioned “now we wait,” with the song “Stray Bullet'' playing in the background. Butler had posted previous photos with firearms, posing the question of why his behavior was not monitored previously, as it could have prevented the murder of an innocent boy. 

Ahmir Jollif, who loved soccer, playing tuba, and singing in the choir, was the victim of this tragedy. He was known by his family as “Smiley,” and had a habit of touching people on the shoulder and asking about their day. Ahmir was “so well-loved” and “loved everyone,” and was a great loss to the community. His funeral was held at St. Patrick Catholic Church, and was attended by dignitaries such as Gov. Kim Reynolds and U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn.

This tragic occurrence brings into question if politicians should look into more gun restrictions in our country, and how our society’s pressures on values such as masculinity affect teenagers to resort to violence. The school shooting could also possibly affect Iowa’s first-in-the nation Republican presidential caucuses.  Questions about the disaster kept showing up for candidates, but they stayed true to their resistance on gun restrictions. Candidates Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley were asked about guns at a pair of CNN town halls on January 4th, and both responded with mental health services and school security being the solution. With school shootings being a more common occurrence than should be acceptable, with 276 casualties since the year 2000, the root cause of the issue should be acknowledged to prevent further devastating losses.