Students at St. Cornelius Catholic School in Pennsylvania were given a rather unusual graduation gift as they said good-bye to 8th grade and hello to high school. As if starting high school doesn’t cause enough anxiety, a local company called Unequal Technologies donated all 8th grade graduate students a “welcome to high school” gift in the form of a bulletproof shield that can easily slip into their backpacks, according to Fox 29. Twenty-five of the shields were also given to faculty members.
“It’s sad the times have called for such a product to be invented, but we have answered the call,” said Unequal CEO Robert Vito, whose daughter also attends St. Cornelius.
Since the Parkland shooting, Time reports that there has been an increase in bulletproof backpack sales, and Louisiana even passed a law that allows students to wear the bulletproof backs at school or on the school bus.
According to Huffington Post, the company is known for making protective sportswear, but they started to make the protective shields 45 days ago, after the school asked for them. The 10-by-12-inch backpack plates have been known to resist ammunition such as a 9mm full metal jacket or a birdshot fired from a 12-gauge shotgun the company said. It also can protect against knife and shrapnel attacks.
Even though Principal Barbara Rosini believes the chances of a shooter targeting the school is small, she wants to protect her students and staff. In the video of the event, the students seem unsure of how to react. One of the students told Fox that, “I never thought I’d need this.”
“Anything that we can do to protect our children and our staff, that’s what we have — that’s my job, to try to protect them, and I try to do the best I can,” Rosini told Fox News.
It is unclear though how helpful these inserts will be. According to Time, the shields do not provide protection against assault weapons and rifles. Armor expert with the Ballistic Armor Research Group Aaron Westrick told ABC News earlier this year that inserts similar to the ones made by Unequal aren’t very helpful as semi-automatic handguns are commonly used by mass shooters. As reported by Vice News, Westrick said that for a backpack to withstand assault-weapon fire it would need to be extremely heavy and built with titanium or steel. Vice also says the inserts weigh about a pound, are a quarter inch think, and don’t take up too much space.
It seems surreal that students would receive bulletproof shields as a graduation gift but given the recent wave of school shootings the administration at St. Cornelius have their reasons for concern. Since the start of 2018, there’s been an average of one school shooting per week CNN reports.