---
title: "This $48M School Was Designed to Minimize Mass Shooting Deaths"
description: "A Michigan town is upgrading its high school with features designed to minimize fatalities in the event of a school shooting."
date: "2019-09-04"
modified: "2019-09-04"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/school-shooting-building-design"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "gun control"
  - "mass shooting"
  - "school shootings"
  - "the digest"
---

# This $48M School Was Designed to Minimize Mass Shooting Deaths

![A Michigan town is upgrading its high school with features designed to minimize fatalities in the event of a school shooting.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/school-shooting-building-design.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NBC News\</em\>*

## Protecting Students

A Michigan town is spending $48 million on construction updates for its high school. Typically, that might mean the addition of a state-of-the-art computer lab or perhaps a new practice field for the football team.

But this is 21st century America, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the school is redesigning its campus not to improve students' lives, but to protect them in the event of a mass shooting.

## Shadow Zones

Fruitport Superintendent Bob Szymoniak recently gave *NBC News* reporter Kate Snow a tour of the town's under-construction high school, pointing out the various features designed to help students survive a shooting.

The school's designers curved its hallways to shorten a shooter's line of sight and added seemingly countless wing walls to give students "shadow zones" where they can hide. Impact-resistant film covers the windows outside classrooms, while a special lockdown system allows officials to isolate threats with the push of a button.

https://youtu.be/EscI-TTyms4

## Taking Action

In 2018, the U.S. was home to [24 death- or injury-causing school shootings](<https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/school-shootings-2018-how-many-where.html>) — that's one nearly every two weeks — meaning it's almost a given that there will be dozens more before Fruitport even finishes its incredibly dystopian construction updates in 2021.

Of course, that could change if the U.S. takes action to [prevent mass shootings](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/school-shootings-artificial-intelligence.md>) — but with the lives of its children at stake, Fruitport clearly isn't waiting to find out if that's the case.

**READ MORE:** [This Michigan high school is being built to deter active shooters](<https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/this-michigan-high-school-is-being-built-to-deter-active-shooters-68110405962>) \[*NBC News*\]

**More on school shootings:** *Fearful Parents Are Buying Bulletproof Backpacks for Their Kids*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)

## More

- [School’s $1 Million AI Gun Detection System Fails to Detect Weapon Before Fatal School Shooting](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/school-shooting-ai-gun-detection-failure.md>)
- [Company Suggests Hiding Students in Fortified Boxes So School Shooters Can’t Get Them](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/hiding-students-boxes-shooters.md>)
- [Florida Schools Deploying Armed Drones to Battle School Shooters](<https://futurism.com/florida-armed-drones-school-shooters.md>)
- [A Company Claims Its AI Has Prevented 16 School Shootings](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/school-shootings-artificial-intelligence.md>)
- [Company Behind AI School Surveillance System in Major Trouble After It Fails to Spot Armed Student Walking In to Commit Mass Shooting](<https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-school-surveillance-system-in-trouble.md>)
- [No, Violent Video Games Don’t Cause Mass Shootings](<https://futurism.com/violent-games-dont-cause-mass-shootings.md>)
- [OpenAI Sued for Mass Shooting: “If ChatGPT Were a Person, It Would Be Facing Murder Charges”](<https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/openai-sued-mass-shooting.md>)
- [Roku Files Patent for Plastering Ads on Top of Anything on Your TV](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/roku-patent-ads-anything-on-tv.md>)