Desk Guardian Will Be Teachers’ Best Friend This Year

By Stephanie Malench

smalench@timestribunenews.com

A little over a month ago Michael Wunderlich was talking to family members about states making plans on how to open schools back up safely in the fall. In order to help take the burden off of schools to make decisions that are best for their students, he and four entrepreneur friends (CJ Yancey, Jon Woodrom, Landry Sorbel, and Matt Hankins) came up with an idea to keep students safe in the least disruptive way possible.

Their invention, the Desk Guardian was invented after researching similar products being used by stores and restaurants cost between $115 and $200 per unit. Wunderlich and his team started researching suppliers and manufacturers of polycarbonate sheets and finally found a couple of suppliers that upon hearing their plan decided to work with them.

The Desk Guardian comes in two sizes, a three-sided one that fits into a track on op of the desk and an “X” shaped one that goes on a table so teachers can work with groups of children safely on speech and reading activities. Both are clear on all sides with rounded corners and can be cleaned easily with warm soapy water.

Unlike the commercial ones, the Desk Guardian will be around $30 per unit. Wunderlich says he hopes to develop another lighter, less transparent one that is secured with Velcro for less than $10.

Right now the company is focusing on selling to public and private schools in the St. Louis area (although requests are starting to come in from across the United States) and encourages administrators to order before the end of July to have them ready for the start of school.

To learn more, send an email to info@deskguardian.com.