Bullet-proof backpacks-video
Categories: Teens & Tweens, Safety
Email ThisA pair of Boston fathers have created a new backpack with a secret and it's not an heavy duty zipper or weight-distribution strapping. The bags are lined with a bullet-proof material intended to protect students during school shootings and save lives.
"If the kid has a backpack next to them, or under the desk, they can pick it up, the straps act as a handle and it becomes a shield," says Joe Curran, co-creator of the bag.
I found the YouTube infomercial for the backpacks way, way over the top in the fear-mongering department. (Also? Using Neil Young's "Ohio" to sell backpacks should be illegal.)
In our school system, backpacks have to be stored in lockers during the day, so they wouldn't be any use in a school shooting anyway. The bags cost $175 a piece and personally, I'd rather donate that money for toward more counselors at the school to help deal with troubled kids before they got to the shooting spree point.
What do you think: Great idea or great way to prey on the fears (and pocketbooks) of parents?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ann Adams 8-12-2007 @ 8:30PM
My God, Angie, what's happening to this country?
Suppose you and I are the only two people who know Neil's Ohio? Memories. Of course Kent State was soldiers shooting kids, not kids shooting kids.
We had a driveby a block away from the house last night. The girls were outside playing. There was another the night before on the other side of town.
Last night some guy tried to strangle his girlfriend in front of our house. The girls saw it from our window. We called the police.
What we haven't had so far is a school shooting. The type that makes the national news is very rare. We have had kids killing kids though; just not on school property (so far).
I moved from the city I love to this much smaller city (60,000) to have a safer place to live. Here, the gangs are trying to take over.
Our local schools routinely confiscate weapons.
However, I don't think bulletproof backpacks are the answer. I don't know what is. If parents want to spend the money to make themselves feel safer, more power to them. Not for me.
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Southerncharm 8-13-2007 @ 7:38AM
Makes me sad to know that a parent would even have to think of bullet-proof backpacks. As a parent of a teenager in highschool I think of his safety often.
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