bulletproof shelters in the classroom

An elementary school in Oklahoma has them.

What do you think of this idea?

Security Theater

Stranger

If that thing can also withstand a tornado, it might be a good idea, given that tornadoes are far more likely to hit the area than a school shooting.

They normalize the idea that school shootings are something we should simply prepare for. Taking measures against tornadoes is one thing, because they’re a force of nature, but we can get to the root cause of school shootings and definitively end them.

They’re also a waste of money which should be spent on other things.

I didn’t experience them firsthand, but I remember seeing/hearing about those “duck and cover” nuclear attack drills in the schools in the… 50’s? Anyway, this reminds me of that.

How do they know when to come out?

When they graduate?

Why isn’t the classroom itself a bulletproof shelter? Classroom walls are mostly concrete, at least around here, which leaves the door as the only weak point. And the shelter still has to have a door of some sort, too. What’s the difference between putting a bulletproof door on a shelter, and putting it on the whole room?

“Bert the Turtle says, ‘Duck and Cover!’”

How does that make any money for Shelter-In-Place, Inc? Think before you ask these questions, Mitch. Twenty points higher than me, thinks a secure door is better than a giant armored yurt in the middle of the classroom? shakes head

Stranger

Isn’t Oklahoma the state where the schools are so strapped for cash they’ve gone to a four-day school week? Surely, it would be better to spend money on actually educating children, rather than preparing for an event that, while tragic, is fortunately also vanishingly rare.

Yeah, well, you have no perspective. After all, you have the biggest gun of any of us here with that 39A.

Yeah. Kids don’t need windows in classrooms. Natural light is just a distraction.

like keeping schools in OK open more than 4 days a week and paying teachers enough so they don’t all leave for Dallas.

Has anyone here heard of the “Bodyguard Blanket”? It was designed and marketed after the Moore, Oklahoma tornado that killed several children at an elementary school. It’s also bulletproof, and they know this because the inventors fired a gun into it. Just one problem: They cost about $1,000 each.

They’re designed to be an extra layer of protection from flying debris, which is the biggest hazard in a tornado, and also so the people wearing them would be easier to find if the building collapsed.

Don’t forget the bomb shelters, for when the North Koreans nuke us.

How do we prevent the kid with a gun from coming into the bullelltproof shelter?

More profiteering by the fear/industrial complex.

Yes, it is.

Pretty sure these were retrofitted into the building as tornado shelters. It just happens to be true that anything that can stop tornadic debris can probably stop bullets too.

You can use bond funds on shelters. You can’t use them to stop 4 day weeks or give raises. I think there was a pretty strong push to get shelters into every school in the state after the 2013 tornado. If your classrooms are big enough, this seems like a doable option. I know my district has largely gone with school expansion and making the new construction into above ground shelters. My school happens to be built into a hillside so we aren’t getting any upgrades.

When the pinging noises stop.

We have a solid door…right next to a wall of glass. Brilliant.
And these are the new school buildings!

The district uses A.L.I.C.E. for emergencies, but people won’t behave perfectly logically and correctly during an emergency if “training” consists of one afternoon of videos and drills once a month.

If guns are used to protect government officials, banks, airports, government buildings, and celebrities, why not use them to protect children? Because something bad might happen?

Sounds like just the thing a gunman needs to take hostages to so he can hold up against the police for days.