Oakland University arms faculty with hockey pucks to protect against active shooters

(WJBK) - It's an unconventional approach to fighting back against a mass shooter, but it's something Oakland University is willing to try. Faculty at school will soon be armed with hockey pucks.

"The first thing that came to my mind was a hockey puck. I was a hockey coach for my kids growing up. I remember getting hit in the head with a hockey puck once and it hurt," said Oakland University Police Chief Mark Gordon.

Gordon has a reputation of being proactive when it comes to preparing for an active shooter -- a fact that became very real for a communications professor earlier this year, right after 17 students and staff were shot and killed at a Florida high school. 

"A student walked into my classroom and for the first time in 20 years, asked me to lock the door because she didn't feel safe," said Communications Professor Thomas Discenna.

The professor went to the chief and they began training the faculty, part of that training involved a hockey puck. 

"The hockey puck fits really well into your briefcase or backpack. It doesn't roll around," Discenna said.

The chief says the hockey puck is really a last resort. The first option is run, then hide and if all else fails, chuckin pucks is better than nothing. 

"800 of them have been distributed to our faculty members and there's an additional 1,700 that I'm working with student congress to distribute to our students ," Discenna said.

"It's part of the bigger picture which is the plan and the strategy and the confidence that you get when you have an individual plan for the classroom," Gordon said.

Part of that plan involves fund raising by the faculty union to install inside locks on all the classroom doors, a process that has already begun.