(STORY IMAGE:KHQ.COM)
HAYDEN, Idaho -Three North Idaho Christian School sophomores came up with an idea for a bullet-resistant desk after a spike in school shootings in the United States "We made an invention called the active shooter shield. It is essentially a teachers desk that folds out into making a barricade in the front of the classroom," said sophomore Jennika Bettis.
Anna Cho and Cathy Ko are both exchange students from South Korea and have been attending North Idaho Christian School for the last two years. They along with Jennika say the desk would fold out like an accordion. The barricade would be big enough to shield up to 20 students from incoming rounds. Either stopping them entirely or slowing them down.
The prototypes both have a plywood outer layer. But in between one of the mockups was ground up rubber chips. The other prototype had old mudflaps from a semi truck “We tried to experiment two different kind of rubber so first, we tried the rubber chips and then we tried the rubber sheets," said sophomore Cathy Ko.
How do they know? Well, the girls went out to test the prototypes themselves. They tested different ammunition rounds a .22 round .380 round .44 round and a 9mm round.
The girls found that the prototype with the mud flaps and one half inch plywood was more effective in stopping the rounds rather than the one with rubber chips. The mudflaps stopped all but 9mm ammunition, but the rubber chips only stopped .22 caliber ammunition. Ultimately these talented students would like to see their idea moved from prototype to production "We want to see our project actually being applied to schools and teachers desks so it can actually save peoples lives and students lives," said sophomore Anna Cho.