Hadley Barr
Martin, Claire. "Out of Tragedy, a Protective Glass for Schools." The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 Dec. 2014. Web. 1 Jan. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/technology/out-of-tragedy-a-protective-glass-for-schools.html?ref=science&_r=1>.
The article that I read, Out of Tragedy, a Protective Glass for Schools, talks about a new kind of glass that is less expensive than bulletproof glass but is built to uphold gunshots and other damage for up to ten minutes. After the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School back in 2012, schools have been trying to take new precautions to ensure that their students are safe and secure in the school environment. According to the article, security cameras, panic buttons, key card entry systems, and even bulletproof whiteboards have become options for protecting the lives of children and staff members. However, strategies have been created to try and delay attackers from even getting into the building. When police first arrived at Sandy Hook, it was 3-4 minutes after the 911 call had been placed. They discovered that the shooter had shot into the glass windows of the school and had entered through that way. But what if the attacker wasn’t able to shoot their way into the school? A company called School Guard Glass has recently created a cheaper yet still protective alternative for bulletproof glass. Only measuring a ¼ inch thick, this glass is sturdy enough to take multiple gunshots, smashing, and destruction for a minimum of four to six minutes, and at most ten. This would allow response teams to arrive to the scene before the attacker has broken through the glass and gotten into the school. Philip Santore, a security expert says, “My job is to keep someone out of the building, and that’s just what this glass does.”
This article is very valuable to me and others because an attack like Sandy Hook could happen anywhere at anytime. There is no telling if one day we come to school and there is a shooting. What’s even worse is that our school goes from K-12 so there are way more students and lives in danger than there were at an elementary school. I feel like our school is no where near prepared for an event such as Sandy Hook and if we had a situation like that, the best we could do is have a lockdown. This glass would definitely benefit us if we were to have such an instance, especially because a 911 call would take such a short time to respond to (as our police station is about 30 seconds away from the school).
In my opinion, I feel that this article was written decently. The author gave a great summary of the glass and its purpose, along with other ways that schools have been protecting themselves from an shooting like Sandy Hook. There was no time that I was ever confused about what she was talking about but I do feel that sometimes she would repeat herself about the same information. This however, only happened one of two times. I felt that the author was also very informative because he gave a few quotes for experts. This backed up all of the explanations that he gave and made me feel that this information is reliable. I also noticed that the author seemed to know a lot about what she was talking about and knew how to correctly portray the information in an understandable way to the reader.
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