Pennsylvania Middle Schoolers Given Bulletproof Shields to Prepare for High-School

8th graders at the St. Cornelius School in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania were gifted bulletproof shields for their backpacks.

The graduating eighth-grade class at St. Cornelius School in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania was gifted bulletproof shields for their backpacks by local company Unequal Technology. According to the New York Post, however, it’s unlikely these items would even effectively protect students from the high caliber of powerful assault weapons.

“I never thought I’d need this,” said one student about his new SafeShield, which weighs 20 ounces and measures 10 by 12 inches. 

Unequal Technology president Rob Vito was present during Monday’s graduation ceremony, and personally handed the supposedly preventative devices out to students. 

“Handguns are useless against a product like this,” said Vito. “Shotguns are useless against a product like this.” Vito is a father himself, with two of his children studying at St. Cornelius. “They’ll stop the most powerful handguns in the world—.44 Magnums, .357 Sigs,” he said. Fifteen students and twenty-five staff members received a SafeShield. 

“It's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it," Vito said during the graduation ceremony. 

“You hear about these school shootings almost weekly, and I can’t believe that’s where we are in our nation today, but that's the fact,” said a concerned great-grandparent at the ceremony.

While Unequal Technology doesn’t claim that its shields prevent semi-automatic rifle fire from piercing through, St. Cornelius principal Barbara Rosini nevertheless reached out to Vito and his company due to renewed and increasing fear for the safety of her students.

“I worry about our kids,” she said. “We can only protect them so far.”

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