ARDMORE, Ala. (WHNT) – With the return of school this month comes the unfortunate reality of school shooting threats at any time. That’s why Limestone County Schools said it wants to have specific devices to protect teachers and students in each classroom.

The roughly six-by-six inches boxes courtesy of the company ‘SafeDefend‘ contain items like mace, handcuffs, and batons along with a slide that will automatically trigger an alarm and contact police. The district believes these could help teachers protect themselves and their kids while immediately alerting authorities at the slide of a finger.

“We did this same training about six years ago. And so now we’re going back to it,” LCS Director of Safety Rusty Bates said of Friday’s high school faculty training held inside Ardmore High School’s gymnasium.

Bates told News 19 the boxes are placed in most classrooms district-wide this year.

“It’s just a good system. It’s an opportunity for our teachers to feel like they have something in place that’s designed to protect them.”

All the equipment plus the multiple days of training at different campuses cost well over a million dollars, but to Superintendent Randy Shearouse, you can’t put a price tag on it.

“Thankfully, school shootings don’t happen that often when you look at statistics. But of course, you’re going to get a lot of attention from that shooting. But every step we can take to keep our teachers, students, staff safe we’ll make sure we do that,” Shearouse said.

Shearouse added many schools’ exterior doors in the county will also have ID scanners for faculty to enter through.

LCS begins its new semester Monday, August 8.