PERRY, Iowa (AP) — A shooting occurred Thursday at a high school in Perry, Iowa, police said.
A woman who answered the phone for the Perry Police Department confirmed the shooting at Perry High School but did not provide further information.
A number of emergency vehicles surrounded the building, which houses the city's middle school and high school.
Erica Jolliffe said her daughter, a ninth-grader, rushed off the school grounds at 7:45 a.m. A distraught Jolliffe was looking for her sixth-grader son Amir an hour later.
“I just want to know he's safe and well,” Jolliffe said. “They won't tell me anything.”
The high school is part of the 1,785-student Perry Community School District. Thursday was the first day students returned to school after the holiday.
The shooting took place in the wake of the Iowa caucuses and not far from where Republican candidates campaigned.
Phone messages left to the Perry school board president and vice president and an email message to Superintendent Clark Wicks were not immediately returned.
A new conference will be held in the morning, the Dallas County Emergency Management Agency said.
Perry is about 40 miles (64.37 kilometers) northwest of Des Moines.
