Teacher reveals how she has hockey pucks stuck around her classroom as active shooter deterrent
The video with more than 2 million views had users fuming over gun safety situation in the US
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Your support makes all the difference.A teacher who revealed her hack to feel safer in her classroom by using hockey pucks as a deterrent for a potential active school shooting has sparked a debate over the state of gun safety in America.
In a video on TikTok, a woman named Carly Zacharias with the username @crzachar, begins by saying that she has come up with an idea to prepare her students in case of an active school shooting.
“Hey teachers! So if you’re just like me you’ve probably been doing a lot of thinking recently about your school safety,” the tiktoker said in the clip.
The video, which has gone viral on TikTok with more than 2 million views since being posted, shows the teacher entering the school and the classroom as she speaks.
Ms Zacharias then asks her fellow teachers to feel free to steal her idea if it made them feel safer.
Giving the tour of her classroom, she says: “I had these big windows along my back wall. My kids know that Plan A is always just to get out of that middle window and run across the street.”
“But of course Plan B is barricade the door and fight, you all know this,” she adds.
Her classroom door, however, has a weak point of defence as it is wooden and with a giant window in the centre.
“What can I give every single student just something to prepare themselves?” Ms Zacharias said.
She said she thought of a hockey puck as “it can really hurt you,” especially the size 30.
She then says to avoid children from fidgeting with it during classes, she came up with the idea to stick them under the desks with double-sided tape.
“That way kids can use them if they need them,” she narrates. “Obviously it’s just a deterrent, but it definitely makes us feel a little bit better.”
The clip which became viral sparked an outcry over how America has become so unsafe that teachers are forced to take measures to protect themselves and students.
“How is America real,” a tiktoker with the username @chlofirth said. ANother said: “America is a third world country with a Gucci belt.”
“Teachers spending their own money so that students have something to throw at shooters. everything is fine,” a user @adoxographic75 commented.
A user wondered how “non-Americans watch this kind of thing with shock and horror?” while another user said in Europe they had to never find ways to defend themselves in school.
“Do non-Americans watch this kind of thing with shock and horror?”
“They replaced your door with a less safe option?! Ugh. This is a good idea though. Easier to throw than books or those heavy tape dispensers,” commented @saberstaff.
The video also prompted a comment from the official TikTok account for March For Our Lives, a student-led demonstration in support of gun control legislation, which thanked the teacher for her commitment to protect her children.
“We have to fight for a reality where we don’t need those hockey pucks. Thank you for being so committed to protecting your students, sending love,” the group said.
Gun violence incidents committed on K-12 campuses have risen to 42 in 2021, the highest during any year since 1999, according to database. These incidents have exposed about 34,000 school students to gun violence incidents.
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