{"id":61289,"date":"2018-03-24T05:44:03","date_gmt":"2018-03-24T05:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=61289"},"modified":"2018-03-24T05:44:03","modified_gmt":"2018-03-24T05:44:03","slug":"this-school-districts-plan-to-stop-shooters-arming-students-with-a-bucket-of-rocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/this-school-districts-plan-to-stop-shooters-arming-students-with-a-bucket-of-rocks.html","title":{"rendered":"This school district\u2019s plan to stop shooters: Arming students with a bucket of rocks"},"content":{"rendered":"

This school district\u2019s plan to stop shooters: Arming students with a bucket of rocks.<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

One schools superintendent has a novel way to keep his students safe from school shooters: arming them with rocks.<\/span><\/p>\n

David Helsel, superintendent of a school district in northeast Pennsylvania, explained his plan to a legislative education committee last week, drawing a flurry of local media coverage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery classroom has been equipped with a five-gallon bucket of river stone,\u201d Helsel explained about his Blue Mountain School District in Schuylkill County, northeast of Harrisburg, in a video broadcast by ABC affiliate 16 WNEP. \u201cIf an armed intruder attempts to gain entrance into any of our classrooms, they will face a classroom full of students armed with rocks, and they will be stoned.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Helsel\u2019s comments come amid a new chapter in the public debate about mass shootings after a man killed 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Fla. Despite polls showing that large numbers of Americans support stricter gun-control measures, Congress has not produced any significant legislation, and schools and other officials have looked to other solutions. President Trump floated an NRA-backed idea of arming teachers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Helsel told local news reporters that students in his district routinely drilled on shooter simulations and were given active-shooting training through a program known as ALICE, short for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate.<\/span><\/p>\n

[ The extraordinary number of kids who have endured school shootings since Columbine ]<\/span><\/p>\n

According to ABC, ALICE protocol involves evacuating students and barricading classroom doors for those who can\u2019t safely leave. In at least one school district, in Redmond, Wash., ALICE training also involved guidance for children to distract an intruder.<\/span><\/p>\n

Helsel described the bucket of rocks, which will be kept in classroom closets, as a \u201clast ditch\u201d option to use as an alternative to students hiding passively under desks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt one time, I just had the idea of river stone,\u201d Helsel said. \u201cThey\u2019re the right size for hands, you can throw them very hard, and they will create or cause pain, which can distract.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His schools have been using the idea, called \u201cgo buckets,\u201d for the past two years, according to BuzzFeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another district had floated the idea of using golf balls, Helsel said, according Fox News, but that idea did not seem effective to him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cObviously a rock against a gun isn\u2019t a fair fight, but it\u2019s better than nothing,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure why some people feel that it\u2019s more appropriate to be a stationary target under a desk in a classroom rather than be empowered to defend yourself and provide a response to deter the entry of an armed intruder into their classroom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Some students and parents interviewed by the outlet were supportive of the idea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, we have to get creative. We have to protect our kids first and foremost,\u201d parent Dori Bornstein told 16 WNEP. \u201cThrowing rocks, it\u2019s an option.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kenneth S. Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services, a K-12 security consulting firm, told the Associated Press that the idea was illogical and could possibly cost lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Susan Spicka, executive director of Education Voters of Pennsylvania, told BuzzFeed that she was at the hearing and a lawmaker responded to Helsel\u2019s bucket of rocks plan by saying, \u201cCan I come out and watch?\u201d The comment elicited laughter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSchool districts in Pennsylvania are so underfunded, then they joke about kids having to defend themselves,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of protesters are expected to converge in Washington on Saturday to call for stricter gun regulations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to be proactive, just in case,\u201d Helsel told ABC. \u201cWe wanted to provide some type of last response to an intruder \u2026 rather than crawling under a desk and getting shot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/grade-point\/wp\/2018\/03\/23\/this-school-districts-plan-to-stop-shooters-a-bucket-of-rocks-for-students-to-throw-at-them\/?utm_term=.138d0ef94560<\/span><\/p>\n

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