Outgoing eighth-graders in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, were given ballistic shields as graduation gifts.
- A group of graduating middle schoolers were given bulletproof shields as parting gifts.
- The shields would protect them from gunshots if they were ever attacked in high school.
- There have been more than 20 school shootings this year alone.
A class of eighth-graders graduating middle school have been given bulletproof shields as gifts to prepare them for potential mass shootings when they get to high school.
The students at St. Cornelius Catholic School in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, were given 10-inch by 12-inch ballistic shields to place in their backpacks.
According to their manufacturer, the shields would protect students from handgun and shotgun attacks if the students were shot from behind. They would theoretically also be able to protect themselves if they held up the shields in front of their bodies.
The shields were a gift from Unequal Technologies, a local sportswear which makes the shields. The company's CEO, Robert Vito, has a daughter at the school.
He gave a shield to every member of the outgoing class and an extra 25 to the school's faculty.
Vito told a press conference aired by the local WTXF TV channel: "It's sad the times have called for such a product to be invented, but we have answered the call."
The bulletproof plates are 10 by 12 inches large and a quarter-inch thick, and weigh about 19 ounces (1.19 lbs/0.5 kg). Each one has a retail value of $150.
There have been more 20 school shootings in the US in 2018 alone. A teenager student fatally gunned down 10 people wounded 10 others in Santa Fe, Texas, last month.
Seventeen people were killed at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida this February, which prompted a school walkouts and national debate over US gun laws.