PORTLAND, OR (KPTV/CNN) – Parents across the country are looking for ways to protect their children after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida on Feb 14.
Bullet-proof backpacks are one option, and manufacturers are having a tough time keeping up with a surge in demand for their products.
Mikayla Hull has worn a Kevlar backpack for four years.
"As you can see it looks just like a regular backpack,” Hull said. “It's a little heavier.”
Hull doesn't have to wonder if a shooting could ever happen at the school where she's employed.
It did in June 2014 when 15-year-old Jared Padgett brought an AR-15 into Reynolds High School, shooting and killing his classmate Emilio Hoffman, and wounding a teacher.
While Hull wasn't a Reynolds employee at the time, she said it did affect her deeply.
That was when she made the choice to do everything in her power to protect her kids, no matter the cost.
"I did purchase my child the backpack immediately following the school shooting,” Hull said. “I decided it was just the best option to do what I could to protect my children in the event that they were in the path crossing of a shooting."
Hull's two daughters, 9-year-old Elena, and 4-year-old Amelia, who is still in pre-school, wear so-called bullet-proof backpacks to school daily.
Hull admits her youngest daughter is not old enough to understand why.
She recently purchased another backpack to replace the one she'd bought in 2014, but getting her hands on it proved difficult.
"Approximately two weeks ago, I looked into the Kevlar backpack.” Hull said. “They were available and when I went back to it two or three days later, they were completely sold out. I even Google searched the backpacks and they were sold out everywhere."
That was days after the high school shooting in Parkland, FL.
Each backpack comes with a certificate proving it's undergone ballistic testing.
An independent tester shoots five nine-millimeter and five 44 magnum bullets into the backpacks, at a distance of around eight feet.
If the product passes the test, it makes it into the market.
But officials said these tests are not entirely realistic because they're done in a controlled environment.
There's nothing controlled or predictable about a mass shooting.
Some of these backpacks have the same ballistic rating as the vests their deputies wear on patrol, said Sgt. Bryan White of the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.
"It's not going to stop rifles typically.” White said. “It's not designed to stop that level of threat, simply because the momentum and the speed that a projectile or a bullet fires out of that gun, the material is just not thick enough or strong enough to stop it."
This isn't news to Hull.
She did lots of research and watched many video reviews before buying the Guard-Dog Pro-Shield 2.
She said she'll take her chances.
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