Step inside the bulletproof shelter designed to protect students from an active shooter

ByDanny Clemens WLS logo
Thursday, March 1, 2018
Is this bulletproof school shelter the new normal?
These safe rooms, which take less than a minute to load and lock, can secure 35 students and teachers during an active-shooter situation.

In a world where children are taught to prepare for the possibility of an active shooter in their school, are bulletproof shelters are the new normal?

They may soon be, thanks to a company called Shelter-In-Place that makes bulletproof safe rooms that double as severe weather shelters.

One of the safe rooms can hold up to 35 students and teachers, according to Shelter-In-Place. They take less than a minute to load and can be locked from the inside. Each structure contains its own backup power, lighting, air filtration and security cameras.

Videos provided by Shelter-In-Place show the safe room withstanding gunfire from an AK-47, an AR-15, a 9mm and other firearms.

Healdton Public Schools, a small district in southern Oklahoma, is the first in the nation to install the bulletproof structures from Utah-based Shelter-In-Place. The district has installed nine at its elementary and middle schools, and additional safe rooms will soon be installed at high schools.

Superintendent Terry Shaw is so confident in the product that he secured himself inside of the shelters and allowed himself to be shot at.

"I volunteered. I did not feel comfortable putting these in my buildings if I wasn't willing to do it myself, so I offered to go inside. But it was very surreal. I felt very comfortable, very safe," he told KOCO-TV.

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