Schools stockpile grenade launchers, M16 rifles, armored vehicles and other military equipment

Schools stockpile grenade launchers, M16 rifles, armored vehicles and other military equipment - EAGnews.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Nearly two dozen legal, civil rights, and education advocacy organizations recently sent a letter to the U.S. departments of Defense, Justice and Education to plead with federal officials to stop sending military equipment, weapons and armored vehicles to public schools.
The move comes as an increasing number of school districts across the country take part in the Department of Defense’s Excess Property Program, commonly known as the 1033 program.
The Huffington Post reports that at least 20 schools have taken in military-grade equipment, from grenade launchers to laptops, since the program started in 1997.
....Florida’s Pinellas County School District, for example, received almost two dozen M16 rifles, while San Diego and Los Angeles schools took in armored vehicles capable of withstanding mine explosions, according to the news site.
“Our hope is that our officers never have a need to use this equipment,” Pinellas schools public information officer Melanie Marquez Parra told the news site. “These are items we acquired so they could have equipment for worst-case scenario situations.”
San Diego Unified School District Police Chief Ruben Littlejohn told NPR the district’s mine-resistant vehicle will be used exclusively as a rescue vehicle, and that officials planned to fill it with teddy bears and trauma kits.
It’s not a militarization of public schools, he said.