Eighth-graders got an unexpected graduation gift: Bulletproof shields for high school
In the past, preparing for high school usually involved buying paper, pencils, binders and textbooks.
Officials at a Pennsylvania middle school added another item to that list for graduating eighth-graders: Bulletproof panels, according to WPVI. It's a gift from company Unequal Technology and its founder Robert Vito, who handed out the shields to students on Monday morning.
He told Chadds Ford Live that the recent spate of school shootings — like the ones in Santa Fe, Texas, and Parkland, Florida — inspired him to create a product that can protect children if a mass shooting ever comes to their town.
"When we saw the epidemic happening in the schools, we decided it was time to do something," Vito said. "(The panels will) stop the most powerful handguns in the world, .44 magnums, .357 Sigs."
The ballistic shields work in both directions, Vito told Chadds Ford Live, meaning students can cover the front of their bodies to protect vital organs or they can insert them in their backpacks in case a shooter fires at them as they try to run away. Each one weighs 20 ounces and are 10-by-12 inches with a quarter-inch of thickness.
He told Fox29 that both handguns and shotguns "are useless against a product like this."
Vito also said the gift is historic, according to KVOA.
"This is the first time in the history of the United States in which students have been issued ballistic panels," he said.
Jake Nicosia, a graduating eighth-grader, said he appreciated the gift, even though it would be preferable if he never needed it.
"I think its a really great product that can help protect us,” he told KVOA. “But I hope I never have to use it."
Principal Barbara Rosini, whose school also has an additional deadbolt lock for each classroom to ward off potential shooters, told Fox29 that she wanted the shields to help keep her students safe in the school years to come.
"Anything that we can do to protect our children and our staff," she said. "...That's my job, to try to protect them and I try to do the best I can."
The panels can also be used to deflect any knife-attacks, Vito said in an interview with KVOA, and all faculty members received one, too.
A great-grandparent, whom Fox29 didn't identify, described their conflicted emotions about the gift.
"You hear about these school shootings almost weekly," they said. "I can't believe that's where we are in our nation today, but that's the fact."
This story was originally published June 5, 2018 at 11:35 AM with the headline "Eighth-graders got an unexpected graduation gift: Bulletproof shields for high school."