I've got mixed feelings about this policy.

On the one hand I think most would agree that students and faculty throwing rocks at an evil or deranged killer armed with a gun is a less than optimal defense. I'd rather that trained and armed good guys actively engage armed killers, in an effort to end the situation as quickly as possible and minimize the casualties.

Additionally, I think that being armed in some manner, as primitive as it is, may actually lull the families, students, and faculty into thinking that they are actually safer than they really are.

On the other hand I support the idea that, rather than the common policy of sheltering in place and waiting to be a victim while hoping that help arrives in time, this policy at least encourages those in danger to take responsibility for their safety and actively resist the killer(s).

In a lethal threat encounter I'd prefer that potential victims be protected with at least an equal amount of lethal force, preferably more force...but I'll take a rock over over being completely disarmed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...m_term=.0af9357ca0de

This school district’s plan to stop shooters: Arming students with a bucket of rocks

Eli Rosenberg March 23 at 9:01 PM

One schools superintendent has a novel way to keep his students safe from school shooters: arming them with rocks.

David Helsel, superintendent of a school district in northeast Pennsylvania, explained his plan to a legislative education committee last week, drawing a flurry of local media coverage.

“Every classroom has been equipped with a five-gallon bucket of river stone,” Helsel explained about his Blue Mountain School District in Schuylkill County, northeast of Harrisburg, in a video broadcast by ABC affiliate 16 WNEP. “If an armed intruder attempts to gain entrance into any of our classrooms, they will face a classroom full of students armed with rocks, and they will be stoned.”

Helsel’s comments come amid a new chapter in the public debate about mass shootings after a man killed 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Fla. Despite polls showing that large numbers of Americans support stricter gun-control measures, Congress has not produced any significant legislation, and schools and other officials have looked to other solutions. President Trump floated an NRA-backed idea of arming teachers.

Helsel told local news reporters that students in his district routinely drilled on shooter simulations and were given active-shooting training through a program known as ALICE, short for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate.

[ The extraordinary number of kids who have endured school shootings since Columbine ]

According to ABC, ALICE protocol involves evacuating students and barricading classroom doors for those who can’t safely leave. In at least one school district, in Redmond, Wash., ALICE training also involved guidance for children to distract an intruder.

Helsel described the bucket of rocks, which will be kept in classroom closets, as a “last ditch” option to use as an alternative to students hiding passively under desks.

“At one time, I just had the idea of river stone,” Helsel said. “They’re the right size for hands, you can throw them very hard, and they will create or cause pain, which can distract.”

His schools have been using the idea, called “go buckets,” for the past two years, according to BuzzFeed.

Another district had floated the idea of using golf balls, Helsel said, according Fox News, but that idea did not seem effective to him.

“Obviously a rock against a gun isn’t a fair fight, but it’s better than nothing,” he said. “I’m not sure why some people feel that it’s more appropriate to be a stationary target under a desk in a classroom rather than be empowered to defend yourself and provide a response to deter the entry of an armed intruder into their classroom.”

Some students and parents interviewed by the outlet were supportive of the idea.

“At this point, we have to get creative. We have to protect our kids first and foremost,” parent Dori Bornstein told 16 WNEP. “Throwing rocks, it’s an option.”

Kenneth S. Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services, a K-12 security consulting firm, told the Associated Press that the idea was illogical and could possibly cost lives.

Susan Spicka, executive director of Education Voters of Pennsylvania, told BuzzFeed that she was at the hearing and a lawmaker responded to Helsel’s bucket of rocks plan by saying, “Can I come out and watch?” The comment elicited laughter.

“School districts in Pennsylvania are so underfunded, then they joke about kids having to defend themselves,” she said.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters are expected to converge in Washington on Saturday to call for stricter gun regulations.

“We’ve been trying to be proactive, just in case,” Helsel told ABC. “We wanted to provide some type of last response to an intruder … rather than crawling under a desk and getting shot.”

Helsel did not immediately return a request for comment.

Some discussion on this topic in the last few pages of this thread:

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...0601935/m/3540079734

Gosh darn it. I did a forum search using the key words Pennsylvania Schools Arms Students Rocks and nothing popped up.

Sorry mods...guess you better lock this one.