School District that Armed Students with Rocks Shifts to Good Guys with Guns

Sheriffs deputies stand guard over students after they were evacuated to the track and foo
AP Photo/Ed Andrieski

The Pennsylvania school district that faced a social media backlash over news that it armed students with rocks to fight off mass shooters now says it will be adding good guys with guns for protection.

On March 23, Breitbart News reported that Schuylkill County schools, in the Blue Mountain School District, had placed buckets full of rocks in classrooms so that students could throw the rocks at bad men with guns.

WNEP quoted Superintendent Dr. David Helsel saying, “Every classroom has been equipped with a five-gallon bucket of river stone. 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 indicated he thought of the plan himself: “At one time I just had the idea of river stone, they’re the right size for hands, you can throw them very hard and they will create or cause pain, which can distract.”

Fox News reported the school district faced “public mockery” for the plan and is now announcing it will use good guys with guns to protect students.

Helsel lamented that he and his “last resort” strategy of throwing rocks made national headlines.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

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