Perry is about 19% illegal alien, FWIW....I would say its about 40%, because I think the Census is bullschidt and I'm full of negative, white racist waves. I've also been to Perry maybe once or twice. Maybe 753 times....
Call it 9% hispanic if it makes you feel better to think there are ANY legit ones. But that's not the topic at hand.
FWIW the little unsupervised cretin wasn't born, he was made.
We played Perry's sports teams for years. My home town is only about 40 miles from Perry. For the longest time, we were pretty matched population wise. Then Perry got the packing plant. My hometown is now about 5000 people and Perry's is around 7000. The primary difference is/was the packing plant. We are pretty much the same distance from Des Moines so the "Des Moines" factor is pretty much a non issue.
I can't help but think the influx of "strangers" to town has not been exactly peaceful but it's been years since I was in Perry. Maybe it's working out better than I imagined.
The wild card in all of this is the "transgender issue". I only spent 6 years in a metro high school as an SRO and the "gay and transgender" thing was just beginning to make an appearance. There was no doubt there was some friction but we did the best we could to keep it down to a "nothing burger" during the school hours. In reality, for the most part our students were accepting of the gay and transgender issues. We could not control what happened after school hours and what happened on the internet outside of the building. I'm sure it was a much bigger problem than we could ever imagine. You guys saw the screen shots, draw your own conclusions.
I can only say, if a student doesn't want to continue in the school building the staff and administration should NOT stand in their way.
The school administration was all about graduating numbers. Keeping kids in the building until they graduated. On more than one occasion I warned the principals about someone who was a security risk and they should not be in the building. Sometimes they would not try so hard to keep someone in the building and let them quietly drop out even if the law required them to stay in school. It was a win/win for the school, the students and the staff.
I understand that a student can no longer drop out at 16 years old. It's now 18 years old in Iowa. This is wrong on so many levels. If a student does not want to be in school, their behavior becomes an issue. It's just my guess that the principal who was shot was trying to comply with State law and pressuring this kid to stay in school, even though the kid did not feel safe or welcomed in the building. You see the end results.
If that kid ever once told a staff member he didn't want to attend school and they stood in his way (complying with State law) they are culpable. The Iowa legislature is culpable. He should have been allowed to drop out no questions asked. Nothing good comes around keeping a student in the building long after they want to be gone. To hell with the graduating numbers. Safety should come first. I suggest the State law should change back to 14 years of age. The buildings would be so much more peaceful.
As an outside note, the Juniors were our biggest challenge. If they were going to exhibit destructive behavior, it usually materialized in their Junior year.
Of course, we will never know what transpired prior to the shooting. Those records are protected from public view. Maybe after some lawsuits are filed and discovery is allowed to happen, we will get to see the discipline reports. I'm betting there will be some. The staff and administration knew ahead of time this was a powder keg, but they were obligated by State law to keep the kid in the building.
What we don't know is what roll the parents played in all of this. Maybe we will get some of that information in the future.
kwg