How would you feel about sending your child to school with a bullet-proof backpack?

If there was good reason to send my child with a bullet-proof backpack, my child would not be going to school.

(Peace of mind, please.) Why not full body armor and a collapsible UzI.

Silly. Suppose the shooter is in front? The kid would be better off with a kevlar round-the-torso vest.

The scary thing is I thought for a minute that might be a good idea.

@Adirondackwannabe I am with you there, this is a scary thing that this point came up at all. School should be a safe zone for kids yet it isn’t, pretty sad.

@creative1 It is pretty sad. I thought yeah, if he has to run that would be a good idea.

I’d think it’s pretty neat, sort of like being allowed to drive a tank to school. Bulletproof backpacks figured into my going-to-school imaginings, where riding my bike became a James-Bond-By-Way-Of-Michael-Bay production.

I’d feel like the people who thought of the idea in the first place, a first class prick of the highest order.

Some people will take advantage of any situation. I hate the reason behind such a thing, but it really is next to useless. Most young people get killed by being front in the front, and in the neighborhood where they live, not at school.

I had a hard enough time when my kids were growing up making sure that they wore weather-appropriate clothing, and that was when we lived in Wisconsin and Michigan.

If the thing had some kind of insulating and water-repellent properties then it might be a great idea. Does it also inflate and hold a child’s head out of the water in case of immersion?

Fear is going to destroy us all if we’re not careful. Life has its dangers. We cannot protect our children or anybody else from everything. We can choose to protect our selves from anything we can think of, but the resulting stultification of our personalities is not worth it in my mind.

Id say potentially dangerous. If the kid thinks the backpack is going to save them then they may be tempted to do something stupid (or brave depending on your viewpoint).

What would this be a precaution against?

@flutherother School shootings, probably.

There’s an outfit that makes a clipboard out of Level II body armor, suitable for stopping handgun rounds. It’s only 8.5’’ by 11’,’ but you could stuff it down your shirt and hope for the best.

@Lightlyseared I think the point of it is that the child doesn’t know they have a bullet proof backpack.

“How would you feel about sending your child to school with a bullet-proof backpack?”

I’d feel safe assuming I taught my kid how to run away from the gunmen as opposed to towards the gunmen. Why is there going to be some sort of mass gun shooting in schools going down soon? Let me know the dates, I won’t send them to school on those days.

I would be horrified that I need to even consider sending my child to school with a bullet-proof backpack. If I ever had the belief such a thing would be necessary – I would be looking for somewhere else to live.

Thankfully, at least for now, kids in Australia don’t need to worry about guns at school.

False security is worse than no security at all.

Kids don’t wear backpacks all day at school, they wear it 5–10 minutes between classes. 95% of the time it is under their desk, in the back of the classroom, or in their locker. Not much protection there.

When they are wearing backpacks, the backpacks do not fully protect their chest, head, arms, or legs (aka their entire body).

Telling kids that they are wearing something that is bullet-proof also makes them feel, well, bullet-proof. They aren’t, and you don’t want them to underestimate the amount of danger involved.

Besides, they are more likely to get killed in a car crash going to school than at school.

It is self defeating because the ceramic impact plates can only be owned by really rich parents who don’t live in dangerous areas. The poor kids might get some help but then they become inaccessible due to economics. If they were affordable then why not? If they can be made non cumbersome so the kid will really wear it ,it might work but that is a big might. It won’t stop bullets from hitting legs (femoral artery) and heads but it can’t hurt anything. I’d buy one for myself if it was affordable however not much stops rifle ammunition anyway.

I thought that’s what all the books were for.

@PhiNotPi I believe the whole idea is that a parent can send their child off to school with one of these and the child will be unaware that it’s any different from a normal backpack. The parents don’t tell the child.

“something is better than nothing” thinking I suppose. I agree it would be ineffective.

In Chicago’s south side they would be “acquired” before Nike’s. Would be a good reason not to let on they might be bullet resistant. But as soon as someone figured out what to look for the cat would be out of the bag.

“Got Your Back” backpacks logo… not a good idea.