US school rebuilt with bulletproof barriers and curved corridors to protect against mass shootings

A US high school has undergone a $49,000 (£40,000) revamp to make it safer for students during mass shootings.

Fruitport High School in Michigan was redesigned with curved hallways to prevent a shooter from having a clear line of sight during an attack.

The Washington Post reports the rebuild was WW1 inspired, when engineers dug through earth to build "serpentine trenches" which had a zigzag pattern, preventing the enemy from shooting in a straight line down the length of the trench.

Classrooms have also been redesigned, now locking on demand, so children can hide easily from gunmen.

Other features allow all doors to be locked from the front office and film applied to glass to keep it from shattering.

“If I go to FPH and I want to be an active shooter, I’m going in knowing I have reduced sightlines,” Fruitport Superintendent Bob Szymoniak told The Washington Post about the curved hallways. “It has reduced his ability to do harm.”

The major overhaul of an existing building was driven by the ubiquity of mass shootings in the United States, Mr Szymoniak said.

He referred to the the El Paso killings at a Walmart this month, along with notorious school shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

In 2018, there were 24 school shootings in which there were injuries or deaths. More than 228,000 students have been exposed to gun violence during school hours since the 1999 Columbine High School slayings, an analysis by The Post concluded.

Classrooms will be built with a “shadow zone” where a gunman peeking in could not see students cowering along a side wall, said Matt Slagle, an architect for the project and director of K-12 projects at the TowerPinkster design firm.

The BBC reports 2018 was the worst ever year for school shootings in America.

Gun violence on US campuses left 113 people dead or injured.