Using hockey pucks to fight school shooters is one college’s ‘spur-of-the-moment idea’
One Michigan university is rolling out an unusual defense plan for a potential active shooter attack: having students and professors chuck hockey pucks at the gunman to distract them.
“It was just kind of a spur-of-the-moment idea that seemed to have some merit to it and it kind of caught on,” Oakland University police chief Mark Gordon said, according to the Detroit Free Press. “Anything that you can throw that’s heavy and will cause damage, cause injury is the bottom line of what you’re trying to do .... especially when you have 20 or 30 people in a classroom and they all throw hockey pucks at the same time, it would be quite the distraction.”
The plan was conceived during a training session for faculty on how to survive such a situation, the Detroit News reported. The faculty union caught on to the idea and decided to purchase pucks.
“We thought ‘yeah, that is something that we can do,’” said Tom Discenna, president of the American Association of University Professors chapter, according to the paper. “We can make these available at least to our members and a fair number of students as well.”
Nearly 3,000 are expected to be distributed to faculty and students soon, Click On Detroit reported.
Oakland University, a research university with about 19,000 students, has also been trying to raise money to purchase locks for some classroom doors, which only lock from the outside, the Oakland Press reported.
“This is a matter of life or death and should be prioritized. It’s a relatively easy fix to a problem that could be catastrophic,” student Ryan Fox said of the lock situation in October, according to the Oakland Press. The hockey pucks are being used partially as a fundraising program so the school can purchase the locks, according to Click on Detroit.
So why hockey pucks?
“The first thing that came to my mind was a hockey puck. I was a hockey coach for my kids growing up. I remember getting hit in the head with a hockey puck once and it hurt,” said Mark Gordon, the police chief, according to Fox 2 Detroit.
“The hockey puck fits really well into your briefcase or backpack. It doesn’t roll around,” Discenna said, according the station.
“Part of the strategy for fighting is you need a distraction,” Gordan said, according to WXYZ. “To give yourself time, as a group, in a classroom to rush the gunman and get your hands on the gun and take it away from the shooter.”
Some have warmed up to the idea, like Garry J. Gilbert, director of the journalism program, the Detroit News reported.
“My first reaction was: You are talking about facing an assault weapon and asking us to fight back with hockey pucks? It sounded silly. Then I went through the training session, and it all made sense,” GIlbert said, according to the paper. Student body vice-president Brittany Kleinschmidt also said at least the puck idea “gets people talking,” according to the Detroit Free Press.
Although Oakland may be the first school to use hockey pucks, it’s not the first school to arm its students with projectiles. One school district in Pennsylvania made headlines with its plan to arm its students with buckets full of rocks to throw at intruders.