Aug 15, 2007 9:39 pm US/Eastern
Kevlar-Lined School Uniforms Coming To U.S.
LONDON (CBS) ―
Pencils, notebooks and … stab-proof vests?
It doesn't sound like your usual back to school list, but some British families are shelling out hundreds of dollars for the protective uniforms, all due to a danger that has parents concerned.
The mean streets of Britain can be deadly. Surveillance cameras captured one attack that left a young man stabbed to death.
Teenage killings here have skyrocketed.
As kids go back to school, petrified parents are taking an extraordinary step, outfitting their children with stab-proof school uniforms, lined with Kevlar, the same kind of material found in flak jackets worn by U.S. troops.
They'll stop anybody bent on slashing the wearer.
Casual clothes are getting the treatment too. And Internet orders have been flooding in, including hundreds from the U.S.
"I was actually quite shocked myself," said Adrian Davis, manufacturer of a model of protective vest. "This wasn't even a direction I was looking to move in, but we have to do something."
Eighteen young people were murdered this year in London alone, and a recent study revealed that 1 in 3 children have carried a knife in the past year.
Three boys at Heather Guiste's school have been stabbed to death.
"It will protect the children," Guiste said. "I do think it's a brilliant idea because you know, you never know because the parents ain't gonna be there all the time."
The government insists violent crime is falling, despite the surge in teen stabbings.
"Around 1 percent of crimes either have a knife used or intimated, so it is a tiny proportion of total crime," said Deputy Asst. Commissioner Al Hitchcock.
But for some parents, even that minimal risk is too great when it comes to protecting their most valued treasure of all.
The company producing the stab-proof clothing is called "Bladerunner."
In addition to hundreds of United Kingdom sales, they say they've had orders from New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Florida, but these orders were not for school uniforms.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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