There have been more than 230 school shootings in the United States over the past decade and active shooter drills have become routine in students’ lives. Now, technologies developed to protect soldiers in war are being incorporated into everyday objects of childhood school days.
At a recent educational trade show, a booth displaying backpacks with removable ballistic shields — riddled with bullet marks from testing — was set between booths for the textbook company McGraw Hill and the learning toy Speak & Spell.
Some of these products come from major brands like 3M; others are designed by entrepreneurial parents. One thing they all have in common: they’re expensive ($185 for a pencil case, $450 for a bulletproof hoodie, $60,000 for a classroom shelter).
Despite advertisements that tout official protection ratings by the National Institute of Justice, a federal agency, the institute declared such claims “false” and said that it has never tested nor certified any bullet-resistant items except body armor for law enforcement.
“School security measures and so-called ‘target hardening’ are extraordinarily expensive and so far, there is not scientific evidence that they make schools safer,” said Dewey Cornell, an expert in classroom safety at the University of Virginia who has trained threat assessment teams in thousands of schools.
Steve Naremore, owner of the ballistic shield company TuffyPacks, acknowledged that it was a “morbid industry.” He said that he sold tens of thousands of products to parents within a week of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
“People say, ‘Oh, you’re just profiting off the carnage,’ ” he said. “And you know what I say? ‘Look, don’t blame me. I’m just the fire extinguisher manufacturer, OK?’”
One common marketing tactic is to emphasize kid-friendly aesthetics — whimsical colors, patterns and adorable characters.
Bulletproof Backpacks
This backpack — all unicorns and eyelashes — also comes in 13 other patterns, from yellow puppies to blue dinosaurs — an “exclusive collection of artwork to engage children,” touts the company, Atomic Defense. You can also choose a purported level of protection — from pistols up to AR-15-style and AK-47 rifles.
Kenneth Trump, a national school safety consultant, said he was skeptical that a backpack would have the surface area or fortuitous positioning to be effective.
“If you have the backpack, don’t you also need a front pack, a helmet, and a Captain America shield?” he said. “The backpack is not particularly helpful when it is hanging on a hook in the back of the room.”
An image from a demonstration on the website of Tuffy Packs, a company that manufactures ballistic shield inserts for backpacks.
Bulletproof Backpack Inserts
“Tank the Turtle” is a kindergarten-friendly ballistic shield mascot that encourages children to use their “shells.”
“Do you know how I stay safe?” Tank asks in an animation video for the company, A Safe Pack, as he poses on a kitchen counter and skips into school alongside a child. “I take my thick, hard shell on my back everywhere I go. Now, you can, too!”
Carrie Gaines, a mother of two with a military background, designed the turtle shields for her sons and has since sold thousands.
“If there’s ever a real active shooter,” her son Gunnar, 10, said in an interview, “I can just tuck my arms, head and legs behind the shield and it will protect me.”
Bulletproof Clipboards
The company Hardwire has made its bulletproof clipboard for teachers look pretty, with painterly palm fronds that supposedly protects against gunfire from handguns and shotguns.
“Don’t worry, be happy with this extra slice of paradise-themed protection in hand,” says the sales pitch. It also comes in Pink Sunrise and Starry Night.
Mr. Trump, the national school safety consultant, was not persuaded. “There really isn’t evidence to show a high level of effectiveness. Are you telling me the entire class is going to go stand in a perfectly straight line behind the teacher’s clipboard?”
Some products boast a James Bond-like quality, with videos showing everyday items suddenly transforming into supposed lifesaving instruments.
Bulletproof
Three-Ring Binders
This binder cover has a hidden strap so it can hang from a child’s neck and, in theory, act as a body shield against handguns. “100% COVERT,” the marketing materials proclaim.
A demonstration image from the manufacturer’s website of Premier Body Armor.
That was attractive to Aaron Taormino of Redding, Calif., who said he bought them for his grandchildren because he was “constantly hearing about school shootings.” He only wished they were lighter to carry, he said, and that they came in pink.
Bulletproof Classroom Desks
These desks, created in response to the Parkland shooting, have a lever that, when pulled, rotates the surface upright, transforming them into vertical bulletproof shields for students and staff.
The manufacturer, First Line Furniture, said they were tested against high-caliber handguns, AR-15s, submachine guns, hand grenades and .308 sniper rifles. One marketing video shows 18 children behind upright desktops, as well as a drill in which kindergarten students hear a doorbell chime and run for cover within four seconds.
A snippet from a series of demonstration video on First Line Furniture’s website.
“Many thanks to our mini-friends and Mrs. Seals at Lineville Elementary School,” the caption says, who demonstrated “how quickly and easily our tables transform into deployable ballistic shields.”
Some are advertised as light and easy to carry — but they have so little surface area that their potential effectiveness can be head-scratching.
Bulletproof
Pencil Pouches
This quotidian-looking three-ring pencil pouch from Premiere Body Armor is hardly larger than a piece of letter paper.
“You’re talking about kids, whose executive function in the brain is still being developed, and you’re asking them to make tactical decisions in that moment,” Mr. Trump, the safety expert, said. “A kid is not going to instinctively know, in this scenario, should I hold this in front of my head or my chest?”
But Daniel Leventry, a father and gun owner in Tampa, Fla., said he chose this for his 10-year-old son and plans to have his daughter, 5, carry one as soon as she is old enough to bring a binder to school.
“Having a discussion with a 5-year-old, or a 10-year-old, about, ‘Hey, I’m giving you body armor in case there’s an attack in your school.’ It’s not a conversation any parent wants to have at any level ever, you know what I mean?” he said.
Bulletproof Hoodies
Wonder Hoodie claims its children’s sweatshirts will protect “all the vital organs.”
The company promises: “If you get shot (God forbid) with our hoodies on, we’ll send you a replacement hoodie FREE of charge. Just include the police report or news clip.”
Many companies say the armored products will simply blend into the classrooms — and in some cases can be used for educational purposes — but some sales videos can be jarring.
Bulletproof Portable
Dry-Erase Boards
This white board is made of ballistic armor panels that were designed for army recruitment centers, but blends into a classroom so that “children don’t feel like they’re in an army bunker,” said J.C. Velazquez, the director of sales for the company, RTS Tactical.
“Let’s just say, parents are not going to notice this at the P.T.A. meeting.”
But a product review video of a competing white board shows it undergoing bullet tests in front of a teddy bear.
Bulletproof Collapsible Safe Rooms
A snippet from a demonstration video on the KT Security Solutions website.
This rapid access safe room can be installed either as a four-sided structure or a flat panel set flush against two existing classroom walls until needed for protection.
In the meantime, its manufacturer, KT Security Solutions, suggests other “classroom-enhancing” uses, including as a “reading space, sensory-friendly area for special needs children, free time room and more.”
A school district in Alabama purchased two of them for about $60,000 each.
Blast Mitigation Window Film
The clear window film, made by 3M, is a micro-layered laminate intended to prevent glass from shattering when struck by bullets from a semiautomatic rifle. The company claims it could delay an intruder attempting to shoot their way in.
After the shooting in 2023 at Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn., administrators at Salisbury Christian School in Maryland, added bullet-resistant laminate to the school’s external doors. They plan to do the first-floor windows next.
“It costs a chunk of change,” said Ross Kaelin, the school’s principal of operations. “But it’s worth every penny for the peace of mind.”
Bullet Resistant Hand-Held Shields
While most of the products are designed to be discreet, this emergency response shield is emblazoned with the label “ACTIVE SHOOTER PROTECTION” and it depicts the very weapons it claims to fend off.
Police officers in Uvalde, Texas, said they needed shields like these during the school shooting there in 2022, according to a federal report.
Dr. Steven Lamkin, the head of Salisbury Christian School in Salisbury, Md., said 10 of the rifle-grade shields are now hanging near various school entrances, and countless smaller handgun-grade shields that double as dry-erase boards are distributed to classrooms.
“I’ll be honest, I was hesitant at first, with these images of rifles and handguns on them, hanging around the school,” he said, “But I came to understand that, like with fire extinguishers, the visuals are important.”
A snippet from a demonstration video on the Hardwire website.
Still, with another back-to-school season in full force, some educational leaders are deeply troubled by the proliferation of armored products.
“Arm us with books, counselors and resources, not bulletproof vests,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “It is infuriating that rather than having the courage to solve the gun violence problem, we now have to confront the monetizing of fear.”