Bulletproof tech sales soar
Focus of parents, administrators shifts to students, building security
Sales of bulletproof backpacks boomed last month as security- conscious parents reacted to the Parkland, Fla., attack where a teen attacker armed with a military- style rifle killed 17.
Even as those students returned to school this week, a small but growing number of U. S. educational leaders have been quietly responding to the wave of similar recent tragedies by fortifying their schools with blast- resistant doors and locks, high- tech glass, and other equipment that may safeguard students and teachers from an active shooter.
School Guard Glass started selling its intruder- resistant product after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., where 26 were killed and two wounded. Starting with sales to roughly 50 schools in 2014, the company sold the glass to nearly 150 schools the following year, close to 300 in 2016, and nearly 400 last year, said Christopher Kapiloff, one of the firm’s three partners.
The company also partnered with the U. S. division of Assa Abloy Group, the Sweden- based lock and dooropening solution giant. The subsidiary did roughly $ 47 million in business with U. S. schools with students from kindergarten to 12th grade last year, says Dan Glover, a product manager for the company’s door group. That represents roughly a 10% in- crease over 2016, he said.
“It’s sad to say, but you have to start thinking ( about security) like Israel rather than like Iowa,” said Glover.
In all, 27 of the 160 U. S. massshooting incidents between 2000 and 2013 took place in schools, according to a report by the FBI and Texas State University. When the shootings occurred in school buildings, 14 took place in classrooms or hallways, while three erupted in the cafeteria, and four others occurred in administrative offices or meeting rooms, the report found.
Last month’s gunfire at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School began outside the learning center and then continued inside, where 14 students and three staff members were killed, according to the Broward County Sheriff ’s Department.
The report’s findings underscored the dual importance of preventing an armed attacker from entering a school building and also stopping the shooter from moving from one classroom to another.
With that aim in mind, School Guard Glass used polymer research to design a product that would not necessarily stop an attacker’s bullets but would keep the gunman from getting inside a school for at least four minutes. That’s conceivably enough time for police and emergency crews to arrive.
Other companies also have focused on door and glass safeguards to protect school students.