ATLANTA (CNN) — Student safety is forcing parents to consider all actions to ensure their children are safe when heading off to school, and that includes buying bulletproof backpacks.
Sales of the backpacks are surging and a backpack insert that stops bullets is also becoming popular. The backpacks are priced from anywhere between $140 all the way up to $350. The inserts cost anywhere between $100-$200.
The insert weighs less than a pound and fits in a backpack along with the students’ books. The students are taught during to hold the backpacks in front of their chests in the event of an active shooter — to protect their center mass.
Bullet Blocker, the company that makes the inserts, saw a large spike in sales after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting. The company also reported a 30 percent increase since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Parents who spoke with WGCL said they’ll try anything to keep their children safe.
“My job is to protect him and when I can’t protect him when he’s at school, if I can give him something that will protect him, if that’s what this world is coming to then I would absolutely do that,” says parent Priscilla Graham.
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