Cydney Henderson

The Arizona Republic

A private school in Miami, Florida, is offering parents an unusual item: A bulletproof panel for their student's backpack.

Florida Christian School's website lists the ballistic panel for $120.

The school began offering the panel, designed to turn a backpack into a shield, in the wake of the Sutherland Springs shooting last weekend, the fifth deadliest mass shooting in the nation’s history.

'I'd rather be prepared for the worst'

The nondenominational K-12 school has never had a shooting incident, but a school security official says they would rather be safe than sorry.

"It’s just a tool," George Gulla, head of school security told the Miami Herald. "I’d rather be prepared for the worst than be stuck after saying 'Wow, I wish we would’ve done that.'

"We thought, yeah, let’s offer it to anyone who wants it. It’s not required. But if it gives you extra peace of mind…"

The slim inserts from Applied Fiber Concepts weigh less than one pound. The company is owned by Alex Cejas, who has two children who attend Florida Christian.

"While books and stuff in your backpack may stop a bullet, they’re not designed to," Cejas told the Herald. "I wouldn’t bet my life on it."

The binder-sized piece of armor can withstand bullets from a .44 Magnum and a .357 SIG, according to the Herald. However, bullets from a rifle would require a heavier piece of armor.

The concept is nothing new

This is not the first bulletproof school product to hit the market.

Cejas has been in the industry for 25 years and says the bullet resistant school supply industry spiked after the Columbine shooting in 1999, where two high school teens killed 11 other students.

The founder of the popular body armor company Bullet Blocker told Marketplace that sales jumped from 20 backpacks a week to around 10,000 following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, where a gunman killed 20 students and six staff members.

The company started developing bulletproof accessories, including briefcases, folders and binders, after the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007 that left 32 people dead.

A good response?

School security expert Kenneth Trump thinks ballistic armor for students is not the answer.

"Focus on fundamentals and get back to the basics," Trump told NPR. "There is a security product for every possible need that your budget will buy. The question is, is that the best use of limited resources?”

However, Florida Christian School thinks the option should be available to parents, in addition to other safeguards like sound-enabled surveillance cameras, active shooter drills and uniformed security guards patrolling the campus.

Bulletproof inserts are "out of the norm, but what is the norm?" Gulla added.

Here's how some are responding to the news: