The high-tech tablet — which hangs on a hook, measures 18 by 20 inches and comes in pink, blue and green — can be used as a personal shield for professors under attack, according to the company that makes it, and a portable writing pad in quieter times.
Calling "campus violence a reality" to prepare for, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore announced plans Thursday to spend $60,000 on the Clark Kent of teacher supplies: an innocuous-looking white board that can stop bullets.
The high-tech tablet — which hangs on a hook, measures 18 by 20 inches and comes in pink, blue and green — can be used as a personal shield for professors under attack, according to the company that makes it, and a portable writing pad in quieter times.
"It needs to be a great whiteboard and a useful tool so that it doesn't get hidden in the closet," said maker George Tunis. His Worcester County company Hardwire LLC starting out making military armor, then adapted it for the classroom after the tragic shootings last year at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where 20 children and six adults were killed.
High-profile incidents like Sandy Hook and the 2007 mass murder of 32 people at Virginia Tech have led campuses across the country to focus on safety.
They've developed assessment teams to evaluate potential threats and revamped policies to tighten security. And in Maryland next week, campus police from nine schools are taking a training course in recognizing mental illness to help them defuse potentially dangerous situations.
Body armor is the latest effort, security experts said.
"There are several vendors that have this type of personalized armor," said S. Daniel Carter, a national campus safety advocate. "It's not something that is in much great use."
UMES is the first university to adopt Hardwire's technology, though the company said it has sold its bulletproof whiteboards, which cost $299 apiece, to roughly 100 lower-grade schools in five states, including Maryland. It also makes bulletproof door shields, clipboards and inserts for children's backpacks, all of which it sells online.
UMES President Juliette B. Bell said in a telephone interview that she decided to order 200 whiteboards for faculty using funds from the university's foundation account so the school could be "proactive rather than reactive" in a violent situation.
美国马里兰大学东海岸分校日前宣布，他们将花费6万美元为本校教师购置有防弹功能的书写板，以应对可能发生的暴力袭击事件。该校此次购置的防弹书写板大小约为46*51厘米，每个售价299美元，有粉、蓝、绿三种颜色，平时可用作上课时的书写板，遇到袭击时可以帮助教师挡子弹。该校校长表示，在遇到暴力袭击时，我们应该“预先有所防范而不是被动应对”。去年发生在美国的桑迪胡克小学枪击案以及2007年弗吉尼亚理工大学枪击案之后，美国很多学校都增加了安保措施。
