Why canned food? How about a "big rock" initiative?
Or a hammer initiative (don't drop it on your foot)?

I have visions of Ewoks throwing rocks at storm troopers.

Sounds like they watched Crocodile Dundee on Christmas break...

Knocking an intruder out? Doesn't that teach the kids to be violent? Shouldn't they just try to knock the gun out of his hands?

If it were me, I'd tell them to pelt the bad guy with stinky fish.

Well you wouldn't want the adult in the room to be armed or anything. That would be WRONG.

Bless their hearts. Authorization to stand your ground with canned goods is an excellent lesson in civics. It's a middle school so the weaponry would range from little cans of tomato paste to the big Progresso pop-top soups. For safety and training of course they should add a 'volley attack' section to gym class.
Just the concept of this and the people who practice(?) thinking this way is enough to keep me out of Alabama. What the hell is going on down there? Did Larry, Moe and Curly have that many grandchildren?

Yes, the concept of third-graders taking down bad guys with a can of Spaghetti-O's is silly. But... it's refreshing to see a school telling children, "You have the right and the responsbility to defend yourself. In a crisis, don't sit around and wait for the authorities to show up and rescue you." And the basic concept is actully not bad -- almost anything can make a decent weapon if you have the element of surprise.

He pulls a gun, you pull a soup can.
He puts one of yours in the hospital, you put yourself in the morgue.
It's the Alabama way.

I think Conan wins this round... but I heard it with Connery's brogue, and that ain't right... needs a strong southern accent.

All this probably happened because the principal dropped a can of soup on her foot, and it hurt a lot.

This is the kind of logic that idiots use when they say "watch this:" I should be able to jump off the roof and totally hit the pool.

sure. unless you are inebriated and trip.

This is why your school district runs a security survey, and tightens the access to the school, and gets a plan together.

Then you drill it. For fires you do this, for lockdowns you do that, for tornadoes you do something else.

Elementary school kids should not be expected to fight back, and the odds of needing to deal with an intruder this way are astonishingly small. The odds of a tornado are much larger.

Risk. Humans mostly don't know how to calculate it.

Oh Alabama......You just keep making Mississippi look good. The only reasonably sure thing against a psycho with a weapon is someone trained with, and carrying, a better weapon. French police learned that a few days ago. This is ridiculous, and really no better than saying "grab whatever's on your desk and fling it", which is a last ditch and almost never successful strategy of defense.

I'm guessing the letter was a joke or stunt to point out how ridiculous gun control is. If not we would already have people trying to ban the sale of canned gods to minors.

So middle school kids can magically knock out potential Adam Lanzas with canned food.

We're not exactly talking about NFL quarterbacks or pro baseball pitchers here.

OOOOooooh, but that sense of empowerment is a wonderful thing for the kiddies to take with them to the grave.

Umm, we can't teach a kid to THROW anything. We banned Dodge Ball because somebody might feel bad.

So all the food will be is food.

"We hope the canned food item will never be used or needed, but it is best to be prepared"

Pretty much describes my entire pantry.