Hardwire, the company behind the whiteboards (as well as a 10-by-13-inch ballistic clipboard aimed at serving the same purpose), has experience with combat defense. The white board material is a derivative of the polyethylene-based textile known as Dynameer, which Hardwire developed for the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles most notably seen in Afghanistan and Iraq. Hardwire CEO George Tunis told USA Today that he wanted to throw his company’s expertise behind the problem of gun violence in schools and figure out an innovative solution. The whiteboard is simply meant to help educators thrust into crisis situations to buy time, he explained, not to turn teachers into first responders or combatants. Let’s hope that’s the case. USA Today
