I want to again thank everyone who donated and volunteered to get us where we are today. We want to assure you we continue to move forward in our fight to save our children’s lives with a Safe Space Security Desks in schools.
Now that the COVID pandemic and shutdowns are behind us, the very difficult journey for our Nonprofit continues. With an election year upon us, crippling inflation and the disturbing and seemingly escalating world events taking center stage, it has become even more difficult to keep our mission on line. But through it all, we continued to push forward doing as much as we can with as much or minimal funding we receive.
What the team has achieved to Date;
In addition to our incredible achievements and successes from 2020 through 2023 noted in my previous update, we have installed a SSSD adult home invasion model which the customer was kind enough to provide a testimonial of which we have posted. We have also been awarded our Defend Our Children Shield trademark from the US Patent and Trademark office, both of which we consider great achievements.
The Next Step?
The Department of Homeland Security and FBI’s active shooter defense protocol of Run, Hide or Fight remains unchanged for our children. School shooting after school shooting has shown that there is something missing here. Officials are seemingly starting to feel a sense of achievement when only “minimal lives are lost”. We feel our desks are the answer to provide “no lives lost”.
When a weapon is already in a classroom, it is too late to run. This period of time known as the “Extreme Danger Gap” EDG continues to be the unspoken “missing link” in our classroom security cycle. It is this EDG when our children are left defenseless and at the mercy of an assailant, alone, scared and targeted until help can arrive on scene. How is this still an accepted protocol?
The Safe Space Security Desk “SSSD” provides a Safe Space within the desk for the children to immediately duck out of the line of site of the attacker to enter a ballistic safe space barrier between them and the threat. No running or searching for a place to hide and for heaven’s sake, no expectation to have to fight an attacker that has a weapon.
Prevention and deterrent security such as school resource officers, cameras, locks, metal detectors, fences and controlled ingress will always have their place in school security, but we must be mindful that history has proven that criminals can and will always find ways to defeat these type systems.
Our Nonprofit operates 100% through donations. Our team is an assembly of volunteers and non-paid leaders which allows over 95% of donations to go directly to desks and their ongoing developments.
If you are in a position to donate yourself, or want to help raise funding, we have direct links on our website www.defendourchildren.org and simply click on donate.
Thank you for your continued support in this “Gift of Life”.
Thank you
Todd Drummond
Chief Executive Officer
Defend Our Children Inc., Nonprofit
