Need some help with bulletproof vests...

Tactical Gear Tactical Gear
1

Hello to all,

I very rarely post here, but read and gain knowledge often.

I have tried to sort out some information on bulletproof vest, but have been somewhat overwhelmed with information.

Here is my situation:

I am a vice principal of a middle school that houses about 1000 students. Last year we received a student that was forced out of another district. Of all the students I have encountered in the past 20 years, this students is the most violent and fits the profile for a school shooter. In the past year he has brought spent cases (9MM, 5.56, 7.62, and .45), has access to weapons and posted pictures of himself with them, sprayed students with pepper spray, brought knives to school, and posted a video of himself freezing his pet hamster to death. In working with local LE officers, they have rated him a very high threat for a school shooting. We search him regularly and diligently watch him, but the reality is that if he came with a gun, we couldn’t do much. Permanently removing him is not an option because of legalities. Changing jobs is also out. I will not abandon my staff and students.

Not wanting to get shot and feeling an obligation to protect my students and staff, I have begun to think about stashing a bullet proof vest at school. I am looking for a vest that will fit in a large drawer, is quick to put on, and can stop rifle rounds. Am I chasing a unicorn? Most vests without plates will not work against rifles and the ones with plates are very bulky and would not be able to be stored inside my office. I have fortified my office to the best of my ability, but really would like to go home to my family at the end of the day.

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated and valued.

2

You may wish to reach out to two of the moderators here, ST911 and mark5pt56. They are both LEO’s, and have a great deal of experience with body armor.

I do wish you luck with the situation, and thank you for being concerned and aware.

3

Probably also worth reaching out to Mike over at AT Armor: http://store.atarmor.com/

That being said, the stereotypical bulletproof vests are almost always going to be only suitable for pistol-caliber threats. On the other hand, plates do not need to be very bulky; with the right plates and carrier, you can have a very slim set-up. There is a balancing act between threat rating (which in itself can be quite confusing), weight, coverage, thickness, and cost.

4

First I applaud you for looking at real options. My wife is a teacher and I can tell you that almost nobody at her school is this forward thinking.
You have a couple of options, non are foolproof.
1 you could wear concealable soft armor daily. The pros are it will stop most pistol threats. The cons it won’t stop rifle rounds and they are bulky even when concealed.

2 you can go with a hard rifle plate system. I doubt you want to advertise you have armor so a system like this briefcase /carrier might fit the bill https://www.ar500armor.com/plate-carriers/escort-plate-carrier.html
The pros plates will stop most threats
The cons are you could be across the building when you need it and rifle plates are heavy.

For that type of carrier I’d look at AR500 plates to avoid micro cracks in ceramic plates.

http://bulletproofme.com has some good descriptions on the theat levels the all armor is rated for.

5

Thank you all very much for all who replied. Sometimes help is closer than you think. I was running my problem by my buddy who is a security chief at a local hospital. We looked at where the student lives and then calculated the distance to school. The person in question would have to walk about a mile through a heavily populated city to get to my school. This would most likely rule out the use of a rifle. I think a soft vest is my best option at this point. My friend also purchased 100’s of vest for his security team periodically. He has a fitting coming up and offered to let me purchase a vest at his cost during this time. I am still working on getting this student assessed and placed in an appropriate setting. My district is probably sick of my complaining, but my students and staff are worth it.

Thanks again…now back to lurking and learning.

6

Where the hell is this kids parents? Clearly there is a documented history of violence and access to ammo and possibly guns is unacceptable. With my wife being a teacher I hear all these horror stories about administrators calling the kids homes and the parents not caring, yelling at the teachers and excusing the behavior of these monsters.

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  1. I was a credentialed teacher years ago and taught for over a decade.

  2. When I was working in the schools, I was DEEPLY frustrated as someone with EMT training with how poorly planned and prepared even the high budget school districts were. The batteries in the large emergency metal bins would leak so flashlights never worked, the search and rescue teams were trained for one day per year, and every teacher I worked with that hadn’t received outside training would certainly fall apart in a true emergency. On 9/11… I took over the pricipal’s job because she fell apart emotionally and wouldn’t come out of her office. I created a new plan for the day because so many of our teachers were melting down in front of the kids…

so I definitely understand where you’re coming from.

  1. When I mentioned the absurdity of automatically putting all the children on the field in the open for EVERY emergency… evacuation was the standard protocol… I was waved off as paranoid and crazy… until the active shootings started in the news. But every school is slow to move forward from what they already do. The greatest threat being from a vehicle, not a firearm when all the kids are grouped together sitting down on an open field…

  2. IMHO… if you don’t have a firearm or other means of taking down a shooter… there isn’t much point in having armor. the point of armor is to enable you to survive a battle and come out of it alive. I understand that you won’t leave your kids. I truly do, as I was the same.

BUT, I didn’t even ask to carry a firearm as that would have likely gotten me fired or assessed as a threat- seriously.

If you don’t have a means to take down a shooter… there is little point to the armor as you should be running, hiding, sheltering, and if necessary, running again tossing kids out a window if on the ground floor.

  1. the most important step is to really think it through and develop effective/flexible emergency plans for your school so that from the office you can coordinate the movement and actions of all teachers on campus

you are uniquely situated to do so in your position

  1. That said, It doesn’t hurt to have plates available. For a few hundred bucks, you can keep rifle plates LOCKED UP in a duffel bag in your office/classroom and NEVER TELL ANYONE that you have it there. They are not a threat like a firearm, and being the VP, you will likely have to be one of the few moving around if necessary and take your job seriously enough to prepare to possibly move in high risk areas if the kids are at risk to better assess the situation and make decisions based on real time information which you can’t get from under a desk (speech is purely for the admins)

Soft armor CANNOT ever be left in the trunk of a hot car or any high heat environ. I’m not sure the tradeoff what the protection soft armor provides you worn daily vs the heatstroke risk and weight everyday. There is a balance or cost/benefit ratio and soft armor worn daily is pretty high price for minimal handgun threat coverage. Not to mention how the optics are professionally.

If you are 5’9" or taller and medium to thick build (you can research proper plate sizing on a sticky on this site), consider the links below for plates and carrier. Good deal together, though you should wait until GGG has their carriers on sale. The price drops significantly.

http://www.tyrtactical.com/products/details/armor-plates-sale-17/set-of-two-closeout-level-3-level-4-in-conjunction-plate-large/

https://greyghostgear.com/collections/plate-carriers

  1. Don’t assume the kid can’t steal a car or get a ride from someone. Easy hurdle. The question isn’t “how likely”… the question is what to do in the event that he shows up one day. You will have a timer running from the time he is first spotted and identified as a threat/reported to 911 or the front office until the time LE arrives and locates/neutralizes the threat.

FYI, we had a lockdown on campus because a group of high schoolers barged onto campus past faculty with bats and other weapons looking for a kid… police never showed up because the front office called it into the local PD… but used the “DRILL CODE for asking LE assistance”-essentially informing LE that we were having a drill and to not be alarmed or respond at that time as we were running a drill instead of a true emergency because

THAT IS WHAT SHE ALWAYS PRACTICED DURING DRILLS FOR YEARS - So we didn’t get LE help at all. The group discovered that they were at a middle school and not the high school they wanted so they left.

Please note that NO ONE stopped them, NO ONE ever caught them, and if they had done anything, unless an individual teacher called 911 on their own phone- we never would have received LE help because they were informed it was a DRILL.

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I’m 6’2" 230 and in pretty good shape, not a lot of fat on the waistline, so weight is really not an issue. I would not wear the vest on a daily basis and whichever way I end up going, it will be stored in my office which has AC. I would take it home in the summer to prevent any problems. I agree that having a vest without a weapon is pretty much moot, but it might make me feel better mentally and more able to focus on what I need to do. The vest I am looking at is a IIIA.

We do have several different disaster scenarios that we practice regularly. We have three different active shooter response drills based on the time and location of the shooter/attack. We also have an earthquake response drill and a the standard fire response drill. All teachers have been instructed to call 911 at their discretion for whatever type of threat they perceive. Our local police force is down 25 officers currently and we receive very little help from them. We are situated between several larger forces that have pledged to respond in case of an emergency.

As to the parents, they are somewhat complicit in the situation. They do not want to accept they information that we give them and explain off the violent behaviour as youthful exuberance. Working in a public school dictates that we take everyone and enroll them in the least restrictive environment. 99% of my students are great and I love working with them, but I do not want to overlook the 1%.

I realize that my responses to this type of situation are limited, but I would like to remain useful and have some sense of personal protection. Thanks again for all the detailed responses.

9

A ballistic blanket/shield might not be a bad idea for your application either.