The video.. the video.. the video..
That started it all:
What you just heard if you chose to watch was Blue Mountain Superintendent David Helsel telling Pennsylvania state lawmakers earlier this month that some classrooms had been given river stones to throw at would be school shooters.
Reaction is being heard far and wide–it began with WNEP fueling the controversy but has continued in even more ferocity since.
Multiple American publications have picked up the sound bite.. As have global news markets.
THE MIAMI HERALD.
TIME MAG
THE BBC
Washington POST
New York DAILY NEWS
The buckets are just one of the measures that Blue Mountain School District in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, has put in place this academic year, along with security cameras, secured building entrances and fortified classroom doors, Superintendent David Helsel said in a telephone interview.
“We didn’t want our students to be helpless victims,” Helsel said. “River stones were my idea. I thought they would be more effective than throwing books or book bags or staplers.”..
Sticks and stones can break some bones..
But they will not stop guns.
BUT..before you go and throw rocks from your glass house, consider this fact: The way it was told may not be the full story.. The Pennsylvania State Police actually endorse a plan of this nature. If kids are trapped in a room, there are a few crucial seconds before they encounter a shooter. If the shooter stops firing for a seconds, they can use rocks or other objects to fight back. It is a last-ditched effort before death type of time. Additionally, if they pelt rocks at a shooter they could they could also earn valuable time to distract him long enough ..
Remember.. this is the type of scenario that could occur in the final moments of a child’s life during a school shooting. Consider that.
Perhaps it’s fair to say in this regard, though public excoriation is prevalent, Blue Mountain’s plan may actually Rock.