Topeka school district got free military gear

? A suburban Topeka school district is among several nationwide that have taken advantage of free military surplus gear, but officials aren’t saying what they got.

Auburn Washburn superintendent Brenda Dietrich said Wednesday the district learned of the Pentagon’s surplus program from a staff member who had a spouse at the Kansas Bureau of Investigations.

Dietrich would say only that district police received a piece of safety equipment that is part of an emergency operations plan.

District spokesman Martin Weishaar says the equipment is not a grenade launcher or a tank or anti-mine vehicle. But he refused to describe it because the district considers that security-related information.

The equipment is meant to be used in response to a situation in which somebody outside a school would want to do harm.