KEYS, Oklahoma – A woman with ties to the Uvalde School District in Texas was compelled by the shooting that took 21 lives there to donate safety equipment to a school in Northeastern Oklahoma.

Cherokee County Sheriff’s Deputy Bob Lewandowski, the School Resource Officer for Keys Public Schools, was approached by the district’s former Spanish teacher, Paula Arriaga, who said she wanted to give Lewandowski the tools to handle any tragedies that might arise on campus.

Arriaga had lived in Uvalde at one time and had taught school there.

“After the shooting in Uvalde, she called and asked what kind of equipment I needed to protect me and these kids,” Lewandowski said.

The two discussed the matter, and it was Arriaga who brought up a ballistic tactical shield.

“I said they were really expensive, and she asked how expensive. I told her they are about $2,000 or so, and she said, ‘I can do that.’ I pulled my chin up off the ground and asked if she was sure, and she said to find what I wanted and to let her know,” Lewandowski said.

The SRO spoke with Undersheriff James Brown and was directed to a website that sold the shields.

“I decided what I wanted and it was around $2,000, and she said she’d have a check for me tomorrow,” he said.

A week or so later, Lewandowski noticed that students from the Tulsa Welding School had taken pickaxes and modified them into a door-breaching tool. Those were being given to the SROs at the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office.

Lewandowski took the idea to the school’s agriculture class, and asked if the students could make one like it. Rylee Blair and Keaton Gibbs modified the tool for their SRO.

“Adair County found out about it and asked me to make them one, and the sheriff’s office SRO now has one. They made three or four of them. I think if you buy those tools from [a supply outlet], they are at least $400, and we bought the pickaxe from Lowe’s for $34.99,” he said.

Lewandowski will need to be trained to use the ballistic shield, and that can be done through the CCSO.

“The finances of the sheriff’s office and the school are both minimal, as far as something like this, and having a $2,000 gift is of incredible importance to the safety this school and the safety of the students – and to my safety, as far as law enforcement and my response,” he said.