School Superintendent Candidate Suggests Kevlar Book Covers

Saturday, October 21st 2006, 3:14 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The Republican nominee for state school superintendent, who has said students could use old textbooks for protection during a school shooting, is now suggesting making book covers out of the same material used by the military for body armor.

Bill Crozier said he wanted to ``spark the discussion and debate on what can be done'' to protect children at school and suggested that book manufacturers consider making book covers out of Kevlar, a material used in body armor.

``I think we need to start the dialogue, and help protect the children and help them defend themselves,'' Crozier said.

``There's no reason why we can't come up immediately with a simple policy until we come up with a better one,'' he said.

He referred to several recent school shootings, saying that while the instances are rare, ``it sparks fear in everyone's minds.''

Crozier is running against Democratic incumbent Superintendent Sandy Garrett.

Garrett's campaign had no comment on Crozier's suggestions.

Crozier earlier this week released a video demonstrating how old, thick, textbooks could stop bullets fired from certain weapons.

Crozier's video shows him and others shooting at textbooks with weapons including an assault rifle and pistol.

The video also includes remarks made near the end by two unidentified persons and has drawn criticism from Hispanic leaders.

``We're out on the Texas border, between Mexico and Texas,'' an unidentified person said on the video.

``That's right, on the Mexican side,'' another person said.

Crozier said the person wasn't being serious, however, Giovanni Perry, vice president of the Governor's Advisory Council on Latin American and Hispanic Affairs, questioned why Crozier didn't chastise the person who made the remarks.

``I think it's a bad deal for this person who is running for public office, especially an office that takes care of children, to not care about the fastest growing minority group,'' she said.