SALISBURY – A Pocomoke-based armor manufacturing company says it plans to donate roughly 1,600 protective shields to schools in the tri-county area following the events in Uvalde, Texas.
In a Wicomico County Council meeting Tuesday, Hardwire LLC CEO George Tunis announced his company’s plans to donate approximately 1,600 emergency response shields to schools in the tri-county region. The company’s pledge to provide $480,000 worth of active shooter protection equipment came exactly two weeks after a gunman entered an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and killed 19 students and two teachers.
“These are family destroying events, and we cannot let that happen in our community …,” Tunis told county leaders this week. “This is just one layer of defense.”
Tunis’s presentation to the county council was just part of a larger discussion this week on school safety and efforts to harden buildings and protect students. Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis said in the days since the Uvalde shooting, he has met with his command staff and SWAT Team operators and has made the decision to retrain and reeducate school resource officers (SROs).
“While I will not publicly disclose what that training will be – I will not publicly disclose what we intend to do – I can tell you I later received a phone call … from Mr. George Tunis and Ms. Emily Tunis,” he said. “They reached out to me on a weekend to talk about working closely with law enforcements and the boards of education in the tri-county region to better harden our schools.”
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