A school district in Pennsylvania is arming students with buckets of rocks in case of an active shooter.
“Every classroom has been equipped with a five-gallon bucket of river stone,” Blue Mountain School District Superintendent David Helsel announced to state lawmakers last week. “If an armed intruder attempts to gain entrance into any of our classrooms, they will face a classroom full students armed with rocks and they will be stoned.”
Helsel told Fox News that arming students with rocks is a “last resort” measure, but empowers students to defend themselves rather than sit around passively. The idea is reportedly well-received among parents in the community.
“Obviously a rock against a gun isn’t a fair fight, but it’s better than nothing,” he argued. “I’m not sure why some people feel that it’s 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.”
Helsel said after recruiting the help of a company to help train students and staff prepare for emergency situations two years ago, classrooms in Blue Mountain School District had also been equipped with five-gallon buckets of river rocks and a device that locks classroom doors.
However, since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., claimed 17 lives last month, Helsel’s plan has quickly gained national media attention.
“We’ve been doing this long before the Florida thing; this was not a response to the latest tragedy,” the superintendent clarified to Buzzfeed News.
Helsel noted that while the teachers in Blue Mountain aren’t armed, they are currently looking for members of the maintenance staff to be trained to carry a firearm on campus.
