Principal who Protected Students in School Shooting Dies

Perry, IA (WorkersCompensation.com) – Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger, the high school principal who distracted a gun man during a high school shooting, died Jan. 14.

A post on a GoFundMe page started by the Marburger’s family announced the news.

“At approximately 8:00 am, January 14, Dan lost his battle," the post said. "He fought hard and gave us 10 days that we will treasure forever."

Marburger was at the school on the morning of Jan. 4 when a 17-year-old student entered the school in the early morning hours while students were eating breakfast. Marburger and six others, including two staff members, were injured in the shooting. One victim, a sixth grader, was killed.

Officials said the shooter died of an apparent self-inflicted wound.

Marburger was lauded as a hero in the days after the shooting. Officials said Marburger put himself in the line of fire and distracted the shooter so students could escape out of the cafeteria where the shooting began.

Perry Community School District officials shared condolences with the family in a statement.

“Dan was a tremendous leader in our school district and a loving husband, father, and grandfather,” the statement said. “Our school community is heartbroken by Dan’s death. For nearly three decades, Dan was ingrained in every aspect of our Perry Community School District environment, and we are feeling the immense loss of a devoted and caring colleague."

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered flags across the state to be lowered to half-staff until the day of his funeral.

According to the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Marburger was shot several times.

“A total of seven other individuals received wounds or injuries of varying degree during the shooting event, an increase of two from prior reports. Three of the victims are school staff members and four are students,” the department said in a statement earlier this month. “Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger has been identified as having suffered multiple gunshot wounds and remains in critical condition. The investigation thus far confirms Principal Marburger acted selflessly and placed himself in harm’s way in an apparent effort to protect his students.”

The staff members were treated the day of the shooting and released, the department said.

School board president Linda Andorf said Marburger’s sacrifice came as no surprise.

"He did what he did, and he saved a lot of kids and helped them to get out of the building," Andorf said.

Perry Superintendent Clark Wicks said several people in the school worked to help others to safety during the incident. Wicks said other staff also acted heroically, including Middle School Assistant Principal Adam Jessen who “carried a wounded student into a safe area.”

“This is an extremely painful and difficult time for our entire school community, and in our grief, we will take time to remember,” Wicks said.

According to EducationWeek, there have been 185 school shootings in America since 2018 resulting in 124 killed and 325 injured.

A report by the Department of Education on school shooting incidents between 1999 and 2000 found that in nearly three quarters (73 percent) of the incidents, school shooters killed one or more students, faculty, or others at the school. In the remaining incidents (24 percent), the attackers used a weapon to injure at least one person at school. Additionally, the report found shooters are more likely to target a school employee in their attacks.

“Perpetrators of incidents of targeted school violence chose a range of targets for their attacks, including fellow students, faculty and staff, and the school itself,” the report said. “These incidents were usually planned in advance and for most part included intent to harm a specific, pre-selected target, whether or not the attacker’s execution of the incident, in fact, resulted in harm to the target… In over half of the incidents (54 percent), the attacker had selected at least one school administrator, faculty member, or staff member as a target.”

Students were chosen as targets in only 41 percent of the incidents.

But there are warning signs school employees can look for that an attack is coming, the report found.

Before an incident most attackers engage in some behavior that causes others concern or indicated a need for help, the study found. In most cases, at least one adult was concerned about their behavior, and in 76 percent, at least three other people, adults and other students, were concerned. The study cited two cases where school employees – a counselor and an English teacher – were worried enough to reach out to parents about a student’s behavior.

The department concluded that schools should use threat assessment techniques to avoid school shooting incidents.

“Educators, law enforcement officials and others with public safety responsibilities may be able to prevent some incidents of targeted school violence if they know what information to look for and what to do with such information when it is found,” the report said. “In sum, these officials may benefit from focusing their efforts on formulating strategies for preventing these attacks in two principal areas: developing the capacity to pick up on and evaluate available or knowable information that might indicate that there is a risk of a targeted school attack; and, employing the results of these risk evaluations or ‘threat assessments’ in developing strategies to prevent potential school attacks from occurring.”

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