Courtesy of the Perry Iowa Community Page

Perry School District Superintendent Clark Wicks credits the staff that have been instrumental in the healing process following last year’s shooting tragedy.

Wicks says the district brought in additional people to assist in the recovery phase following the shooting that took the lives of three individuals in January 2024. Wicks explains that the leader of the group is Perry School Recovery Coordinator Mandy Ross, but there are approximately 30 people on the district recovery team that range from school personnel to city officials, law enforcement, and the Perry Ministerial Association. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio that the different entities have been key to helping students and administrators manage their grief.

“We continue to work through all of the different emotions, and recovery for that, but we’re doing a great job. I think people are gaining that resiliency, focusing on teaching and learning, but this group, there’s just so many things that they were able to plan for and do and we appreciate all the work that they did.”

Wicks points out that Perry’s Mental Health Coordinator Jena Blize has been excellent in setting up services for people. He notes that the recovery counselors from last year are on site for students or administrators to talk to as well as therapy dogs to decompress with.