Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas where 19 9- and 10-year olds and two of their teachers were killed two weeks ago was just one of 27 school shootings with injuries or deaths this year.
Drills for active shooters on campus have been added to the 3R's curriculum at most school districts. On the wake of the Uvalde shooting, at least one teacher, a Filipina American, in Pittsburg, CA have gone beyond the drills to protect herself and the 1st-grade students under her care.
The teacher at Los Medanos Elementary, Kelsey Vidal, posted the series of videos to TikTok where they received nearly 2 million views in less than 20 hours.
Besides the student cubby holes, she has her own personal cubby which had a special metal bat, a Barracuda door bar that prevents anyone opening her classroom door, and two large backpacks: one standard backpack issued by the school for fire drills and other evacuations and a second personal backpack.
She picks up the second bag: "This is my active shooter, intruder backpack," she says. It turns into a bulletproof vest
Vidal said her brother and dad helped assemble the contents of the second backpack., which includes:
- Various sized tourniquets
- Medical grade scissors
- Two bulletproof metal plates
- A bulletproof vest
"I wanted to share with people what I had so that they can start thinking about what they can get in their classrooms to feel a little safer,” said Vidal.
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| Kelsey Vidal's TikTok series of safety videos can be viewed here. |
The Robb Elementary mass shooting is at least the 188th since 1970, according to data from the K-12 School Shooting Database, which is compiled by the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security.
The database includes hundreds of attacks at elementary, middle and high schools in which assailants opened fire on campus. Not including the assailants, at least 200 people have been killed in these school shootings so far.
Since 2000, there have been 678 school shootings with casualties, according to USAFacts.
Its numbers show that in the school years between 2000 and 2020, there were 11 to 75 shootings with injuries or deaths at public and private elementary and secondary schools each year. (Due to pandemic school closures, readers should use caution when comparing the 2019–20 school year with earlier years.)
When it comes to 2019–20, however, there were 75 school shootings with casualties, including 27 school shootings with deaths and 48 school shootings with injuries only. There were 37 more reported school shootings without injuries or fatalities that school year.
In 2019–20, most school shootings (with and without injuries or deaths) were at high schools. Sixty-seven high schools had shootings over the school year, as did 32 elementary schools, 11 middle or junior high schools, and two schools of other types.
Thirty-two incidents from 2000 to 2020 occurred during school hours, including 18 when classes were in session, three during lunchtime, and 11 during school dismissal. In 2019–20, another 80 incidents happened at other times.
The K–12 SSDB aims to compile information on school shootings from publicly available sources into a single comprehensive database. It defines school shootings as situations when someone brandishes or fires a gun on school property or a bullet hits school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims, time or day of the week, or motivation.
On her Tik Tok video, the Pittsburg teacher Vidal opens up the backpack with its bulletproof plates inside. She shows how it was converted into a vest. She says, "I hope I never have to use this one and I hope it literally collects dust like it has been."
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