In the name of protecting one's children
From The Boston Channel:
It started with the Columbine shooting in 1999. Curran and Mike Pelonzi said that they watched and worried for their own children. They had the idea to hide bulletproof material inside a backpack. They call it defensive action.Reader Laura sent me the above article and commented:
"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," Curran said.
It's much lighter than a 15-pound police vest. After three years of experimenting, the backpacks that were tested by an outside lab ranked threat level two. It stops an assortment of bullets, including 9-millimeter hollow point bullets. The fathers researched school shootings from 1900 to this year.
They will sell for $175, but do the special book bags play upon paranoia when most schools are called safe?"
I want to keep my kid safe. I don't care what you do -- if you want to fight the good fight or fix the world's hurts, I can't help you, but my kids are going to be safe because of these backpacks," Curran said.
I have to wonder, if the school they are going to is so bad that they feel the need for this, wouldn't you find a different educational situation? If I felt I should take a bullet proof bag somewhere, I don't think I'd take my child there.While I'm happy that dads are thinking about what they can do to protect their children, I think they need to take it much farther than a bulletproof backpack.
posted by Crystal Paine at 9:31 AM
8 Comments:
I can understand Laura's sentiment, and the father's at the same time. Anyone can take great measures to protect their child, but it is never a gurantee. You could remove your child from the school and homeschool them, but what's to say that a person won't break in to your house and shoot you? What would you say then?
However, I do not feel quite at ease at questioning this father's actions. As the leader of his family, he is doing what he feels is best for his children.
In our case, we're utilizing our second amendment to have guns for home protection. My husband also carries a handgun whenever we go out. Was I a little uncomfortable in the beggining? Yes. However, I am very proud of his decision and leadership to protect our family, in what he thought was best.
You just don't know anything now a days. Shootings can happen in schools, restaurants, banks, and even your home. Each family, especially father, has to make a decision in which they think is best protecting their family/children.
I'd certainly keep my children AT HOME in such a situation. Even during war - and maybe especially then - it's better for a family to stick together.
I absolutely agree that shootings can happen anywhere and God is ultimately the only One Who can protect us. However, we *can* (and I believe we *should*) take measures to protect our children as best as we can - and that would include staying away from those places where we know there is danger or potential danger.
The public school system not only endangers our children physically, much moreso it endangers our children spiritually. It is our job as parents to protect our little children and sending them off for eight hours a day to be with people we don't know to learn things we *know* are anti-Biblical is not wise or protective of our children, I believe.
Crystal- I have to agree. The biggest danger with public school systems is the spiritual danger not the physical (while clearly still a huge concern.) I was a few blocks away when Salt Lake had our large shooting a few months ago. In that time my thought for the victims and the shooter was," Are they ready for eternity?" We all have to die someday, so the most important thing is being ready to meet our Creator.
I became a Christian at 13, but my years in a secular school were a large contributing factor to my being influenced away from my faith. By the grace of God I was led back into his care, but it is a shame I wasted so many years at an important age not growing in Christ. Homeschooling may not be for everyone, but it is so sad to see parents take a casual attitude to the shaping of their children's faith. My Grandma used to say raising children is like holding onto soap. Hold too hard and it slips out of your hands, but hold too gently and it also slips out.
God Bless! Jayne
I actually like the invention, not necessarily to be used in a public school situation (we homeschool) but just as a protective measure. We're looking at flying quite a bit in the future and I think it's a wonderful protective measure to have just in case (still not sure about the price though).
Jennifer
While I think this paints the potential dangers of public schooling with too broad a brush, I have to agree that if a parent is that concerned for his child's safety, he really should seek an educational alternative. No child should need a bullet-proof backpack in order to be educated.
I went to public school for most of my schooling, and I was a public-school teacher for 3 years. I still occasionally substitute teach and tutor. I have NEVER felt unsafe in a public school. EVER. But I guarantee that if I did, I wouldn't be working there. And if I had a child whom I believed to be in danger at school, well, he or she would no longer be in that school.
I find the whole product amusing. A person who would actually go to a school that had violence like this would probably not be able to afford a $175 backpack. It sounds like an excellent marketing strategy to me focused on worried suburban parents.
I would rather spend the $175 cost toward home education materials and teach my children that the Lord is their sheild, not an overpriced backpack!!!
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