With arming teachers with guns out of the question due to university policy, one school in Michigan has come up with a new defense initiative for faculty and students: hockey pucks.<\/b>
\nWith arming teachers with guns out of the question due to university policy, one school in Michigan has come up with a new defense initiative for faculty and students: hockey pucks.
According to the Detroit News, Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Michigan, has already spent $2,500 on hockey pucks, which it is distributing to faculty and students as a \u00ab\u00a0last resort\u00a0\u00bb line of defense against school shooters.
\u00ab\u00a0Oakland University Police Chief Mark Gordon said the idea emerged during a training session he was giving earlier this year on surviving an active shooter situation,\u00a0\u00bb the outlet reports. \u00ab\u00a0Gordon, a former youth hockey coach, said since the university has an ordinance against weapons, one attendee asked what staff and students could bring to prepare themselves for a fight. He recalled once being struck in the head with a puck and said it \u00ab\u00a0caused a fair amount of damage to me.'\u00a0\u00bb
Gordon told reporters that it was a \u00ab\u00a0spur-of-the-moment-thing\u00a0\u00bb and not much of a \u00ab\u00a0well-though-out strategy,\u00a0\u00bb but the university faculty union’s executive committee, which was initially skeptical, warmed up to the idea after doing some research.
American Association of University Professors president Tom Discenna said that after learning that law enforcement has expressed support for similar tactics, the union decided to get behind Gordon’s idea.
\u00ab\u00a0We thought ‘yeah, that is something that we can do,'\u00a0\u00bb said Discenna. \u00ab\u00a0We can make these available at least to our members and a fair number of students as well.\u00a0\u00bb
The Detroit News cites Garry J. Gilbert, director of the school’s journalism program who was initially skeptical but has since changed his tune upon attending a training session.
\u00ab\u00a0My first reaction was: You are talking about facing an assault weapon and asking us to fight back with hockey pucks? It sounded silly,\u00a0\u00bb he said. \u00ab\u00a0Then I went through the training session, and it all made sense. None of us want to face an armed assailant. Students will look to us for leadership in a situation like that.\u00a0\u00bb
So far the university has purchased 2,500 pucks, which cost about 94 cents each, and has stamped each with the union’s logo. Eight hundred of the faculty have already received the pucks, while the remaining 1,700 are being distributed to students. The student association has already ordered another 1,000.
The school plans to gradually distribute all of the pucks to faculty and students who request them and provide training on how best to use them in an active shooter situation.
The idea is for potentially \u00ab\u00a0dozens\u00a0\u00bb of people in any given classroom to be armed with the weapons, something Chief Gordon suggested would serve as a deterrent for any would-be shooters and \u00ab\u00a0empower\u00a0\u00bb faculty and students.
The teacher’s union and student government organization both hope to build off the buzz about the pucks to help fundraise for other security measures, including improving interior door locks, for which both organizations have already donated $5,000 each.
Read the full report here .
H\/t The College Fix .<\/p>\n