Fearing mass shootings, some schools in US turn to armored equipment
BERLIN: Linda Bragg wrote a “quote of the day” on the small whiteboard in her classroom, a teaching aid that can double as a bullet-resistant shield in the event of a school shooting. The tablets, made of polyethylene fiber and weighing just three pounds (1.5 kilograms), have been in the classrooms of Worcester Preparatory School in historic Berlin, Maryland since 2013. Berlin, which features a population of 5,000 and is located just miles from some popular Atlantic beaches, calls itself “America’s coolest small town.”
The prep school’s whiteboards, measuring some 20 by 18 inches (50 by 45 centimeters), look like those used in many classroom around the country. But with handles screwed to their backs, they are designed to allow a teacher like Bragg to protect herself from an assailant’s bullets. The whiteboards are produced not far from Berlin by a small company, Hardwire, which has become a world leader in bullet-resistant equipment and armored devices, sold both to American police departments and the US Army.
Shocked by the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where a young shooter killed 26 people—including 20 six- and seven-year-old children—Hardwire’s boss, George Tunis, saw a way to help out while moving into a new market: classrooms. When a shooter entered a high school in Parkland, Florida on February 14 and began firing his assault rifle, the school’s assistant football coach, Aaron Feis, was among the first of the 17 victims to be gunned down as he attempted to protect students from the gunfire.
‘A last, last resort’
Tunis said he believes his company’s shield “would have made a difference.” In addition to the protective whiteboards, Hardwire makes armored clip boards, tablets and notebooks. It also makes hardened inserts, the size of a notebook, that can be placed in a student’s backpack. The company equips schools in Maryland, Minnesota and Delaware, and exports outside the country as well. It refuses to reveal its revenue figures but says that since the Parkland shooting, “sales have been skyrocketing.” Prices range from $75 for a backpack insert to $1,000 for a whiteboard capable of stopping rounds from an assault rifle.
“It’s a last, last resort for personal protection,” Tunis said. At Worcester Prep, with 500 students from kindergarten through 12th grade, administrators, teachers and students’ parents say they are fans of the whiteboards. “Whiteboards have given our teachers a real comfort,” said Barry Tull, 72, who is in his 33rd year as Worcester’s headmaster. Though some teachers were initially “not at ease” with the idea, “as they trained to use this as one more piece of security, they got very comfortable,” he said. Many Berlin residents support the whiteboards. “It’s a good start,” said Jessica Collins, 34, a local police officer. —AFP