As I write this article, it really hits home for me. I have a vested interest in protecting our kids, as I have two in local schools.

With all the active shooter incidents we have witnessed on the evening news, it’s scary as hell to keep sending them off to school hoping that nothing happens. When I drop them off in the mornings and say “I love you”, I can’t help but think that may be the last time I get to say those words to them. Anymore it’s just as scary for the parents as it is for the students.

So what can we do to increase the survivability of our kids while they are at school?

Add The Following Items To Your Kid’s Backpacks

Bulletproof Backpack Insert

This insert will fit into almost any backpack. You can either slip it into the laptop sleeve of the backpack or just slide it in behind all the textbooks and notebooks.

Our BallisticBoard® backpack insert is tested in accredited labs and shown to protect against handgun rounds. The impressive features of this backpack insert are the thickness of the plate (0.26”) and the weight (1.2 lbs).

If you wanted to protect your kids from rifle rounds fired from an AR-15, then we recommend you go with our Level III rated BallisticBoard Backpack Insert. It’s slightly thicker than the Level IIIa plates, but it gives you protection against an active shooter with an AR-15 rifle.

Add that to the other books and notebooks inside the pack and you’ve got yourself a pretty solid shield to protect yourself with. Granted this will not stop rifle rounds, but it does add another layer of protection and peace of mind. My high school daughter carries one inside her backpack throughout the day.

Small Medical Kit

The caveat to this is that neither of my daughters is trained in using this kit. The purpose of them having this kit inside their backpack is that if something does go terribly wrong at school, they can hand this kit to a teacher or police officer to administer to them or other students that may need medical attention before first responders are onsite. 

When seconds count, first responders are minutes away. A small medical kit that contains a Tourniquet, some type of hemostatic bleeding control gauze, a pressure dressing, and gloves will go a long way in saving lives.

Glass breaking pen

Again this stays inside their bag until needed. Most teachers in my daughter's school have a means of breaking the windows so that the students can get out and run to safety. If for whatever reason they don’t, my daughters can hand this to the teacher to break the glass.

The above three items help give me a little peace of mind when I send them off to school and also give them a sense of security and confidence if something were to happen.

The Response to School Shootings and Active Shooters

I’m not going to get into the debate about teachers carrying firearms, but I will say this. All teachers should be trained in the use and application of tourniquets and bleeding control gauze. 

Every classroom should have one tourniquet per student along with a trauma kit for the classroom. Schools could also offer some basic EMT-type courses as an elective in order to better prepare the students. Having the students schooled in basic trauma medicine would reap massive benefits. 

It not only educates them on trauma medicine, but it empowers them to help people outside of school and possibly guide them into that career field. Having a single Police Resource Officer on site is good, but that one officer cannot address all the medical needs if he is dealing with the shooter and communicating with the responding police and EMS units.

A Study On Mass Attacks in Public Spaces

The United States Secret Service recently released a document titled Mass Attacks in Public Spaces – 2019. Within that document, they talked about the timing of the attacks. Here is what they said.

The attacks took place in every month except December and occurred on every day of the week (see Figure 2). Over half (n = 16, 59%) took place between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. More than half (n = 17, 63%) of the attacks ended within 5 minutes from when the incident was initiated.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, a student is most likely to encounter a school shooting in one of 4 places; The parking lot (21%), Classroom (10%), Beside the Building (10%), or the Hallway (9%). 

Seconds count when first responders are minutes away. The above statements reiterate the importance of addressing medical needs before first responders are on the scene. Equipping teachers and faculty with the knowledge and tools to save lives will reap massive benefits if a violent situation presents itself.

I applaud what the local school system in my area has done regarding student safety. They have implemented specific drills and practiced them. Teachers have the ability to break outside facing windows as a means of escape, and they also have specific actions to take in the event a shooter breaches the room, which I will not discuss here for the sake of security.

If you are a student, parent, or teacher I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

How Can ShotStop Help?

Here are 3 reasons why you should choose ShotStop over other body armor companies when it comes to protecting our kids while they are at school. 

First, our warranty applies to all products we sell. This means that our level 3a BallisticBoard bulletproof backpack inserts come with a 5-year warranty! Our new rifle-rated level III 10x16 rigid backpack insert comes with a 15-year warranty.

Second, our Duritium® armor is ballistic tested in accredited labs and every single test we have done exceeds national standards. Don’t take our word for it, we’d be glad to send any customer a copy of our independent lab results. 

Third, we are now certified through Smithers to ISO 9001:2015 standards. This international standard shows that we are in compliance with all best practices in manufacturing, customer satisfaction, and employee safety.

Our Duritium® body armor plates are the lightest, thinnest, and most comfortable plates you'll ever wear. We also understand that our armor is an expensive initial cost compared to our competitors.

Even though our 10 (Level 4) and 15-year (Level 3+) warranties make our armor cheaper over time, spending more than $500 on a set of plates is a lot at one time.

Showing our customers that they can trust our name means everything to us as a team. This is why we show proof of our certifications and tests on each product page in the form of NIJ Compliance letters and independent ballistic lab test results.