STIGLER, Okla. — The Haskell County Sheriff's office received more than $18,000 Tuesday to buy ballistic shields to put in every school campus across the county.
"This puts Haskell County on the map that they have a rifle-rated ballistic shield in every school building in Haskell County," says Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton, founder of Stand 1st Foundation.
Stand 1st Foundation is a nonprofit aimed to provide ballistic shields to law enforcement agencies that cannot afford them for their officers or deputies. Haskell County Sheriff Tim Turner says after the Uvalde, Texas school shooting, he felt he needed to get shields to add an extra layer of protection at area schools.
"The first thing people talk about is not, what are you going to do to protect my house from getting burglarized? It's what are you going to do to protect my kid from being in school if there's an active shooter," Turner said.
So he reached out to the law enforcement community and local leaders and they responded, presenting him with a check for more than $18,000 from the Jerry Jackson foundation.
"I was on the phone with Tim Turner, he had asked me as the president of the bank if we would sponsor one of these shields," says Mike Butler, the Director of the Jerry Jackson Foundation. "I said yes we would. He told me some of the plans he had for the schools and I told him he might send an application for a donation to our Jerry Jackson foundation, and he did. Our foundation has approved his request."
Four of the eight rifle-rated ballistic shields will go to school campuses in Stigler, with the other four going to other schools in the county.
"When we talk about that $18,000, if it saves one life, it's done its job," Turner said. "If it saves one student, one teacher, one staff member, one parent going to get their kid from school, then we've done our job."
Administrative staff at the schools will be trained on how to use the shields.
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