Let students hurl canned food at intruders
 

You can have my can of okra when you pull it from my dead cold hand!



Alabama principal: Let students hurl canned food at intruders

VALLEY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama middle school principal wants to stockpile cans of corn and peas in classrooms for students to hurl at possible intruders as a last resort defense.

In a letter Friday, W.F. Burns Middle School Principal Priscella Holley asked parents to have each student bring an 8-ounce canned item.

“We realize at first this may seem odd; however, it is a practice that would catch an intruder off guard,” she wrote in the letter, published by TV station WHNT in Huntsville.

“The canned food item could stun the intruder or even knock him out until the police arrive,” Holley wrote. “The canned food item will give the students a sense of empowerment to protect themselves and will make them feel secure in case an intruder enters their classroom.”

The school is in Valley, Alabama, part of the Chambers County school system.

Chambers County Schools Superintendent Kelli Hodge told The Associated Press on Tuesday that school staff had been working with Auburn University’s Department of Public Safety on training to respond to such emergencies.

However, Chance Corbett, Auburn’s associate director of public safety, said he had actually referred the school to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency for active shooter training after learning Monday that school officials wanted the training.

The food cans would be stored in classrooms and students wouldn’t be carrying them around school, Hodge told the AP.

Using cans or other items as weapons would be a last resort for students unable to evacuate, she said.

Teachers are taught to barricade classroom doors if an intruder is in the school, but if that fails, the cans and items such as textbooks could be used, she said.

“If somebody is going to force their way through, then as the last resort you would start throwing any objects you could get your hands on,” Hodge said.

Asked whether throwing cans of food could make a student a target, Hodge said they would already be a target at that point.

“If it comes to the situation that they are forced to do that, then they are a target because they’ve not been able to evacuate,” she said.

If the cans are not needed for security, they will be donated to a local food pantry at the end of the year, Holley told parents.

“We hope the canned food items will never be used or needed, but it is best to be prepared,” she wrote.

The request for canned goods has generated much discussion in the community near the Alabama-Georgia line, but there have been few complaints, Hodge said.

“We had a meeting at the school last night to try to educate parents on it because there had been such a stir,” Hodge said. About 15 parents showed up and most of the discussion was positive, she said.

http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2...ood-intruders/

That is about the stupidest idea I've heard in a while. From a principal, yet.
And of course in no time at all, a can of creamed corn will be a deadly weapon, and there will be concealed corn licenses. :rofl:

It IS a stupid idea.

Zero tolerance on real weapons of any kind, but the idea to improvise weapons makes sense...

I can tell you about 3 or 4 Thanksgivings ago I dropped one of those big cans of yams on one of my socked feet. I cried like a 5 yr old girl!

Darn.... and all this time we've been arming the armed forces and LEOs with lesser weaponry. This could revolutionize warfare and combat tactics the world over. :rolleyes_

Yeah, standoff between someone wielding a 12 gauge shotgun and some students lobbing cans of peas. Tough call on that one as to who will come out on top......

Sure would like to see interviews done of the students of Alabama schools to see what they think of that idea.

You'll have to pry my french cut green beans outta my COLD, DEAD HANDS!!!

Is that what a can of whoopass is? :rofl:

Maybe those old C-rations we were issued had a dual use we were unaware of.

Anyone who has seen the Crocodile Dundee documentaries knows a full can is an effective defensive AND offensive weapon. Probably where the principle got the idea.

As funny as it sounds I like the fact that schools have been teaching kids not to just be sitting ducks over the last couple of years.

Story from 2013.

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — A gunman is inside a school, stalking the hallways.

What do teachers and students do?

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind..._strategy.html

God forbid a shooter showed up at one of my children's schools. If that person made it into their classroom, attacking that shooter instead of waiting to be shoot, may just save lives. I say throw everything you have on hand.

There might come a day when teaching improvised weapons and tactics will be in the curriculum for every school. Be about time that people are taught how to defend and protect themselves (and others) instead of just hiding and quivering in fear in the shadows.

A couple of instances of shooters getting torn to shreds by students and that problem will forever come to a screeching halt.