Footage demonstrating the extreme lengths one US school has gone to to protect students from shootings is doing the rounds on social media.
Southwestern Highschool in Indiana was paid a visit back in 2018 to showcase the facility's anti-shooter defence measures, and the resulting video is unsettling.
The school – dubbed the safest in the country – is not only kitted out with bullet-proof classroom doors and cameras in practically every room, but even exploding smoke cannons hidden in the ceiling. Watch below:
What’s more, teachers wear fobs around their necks that are fitted with emergency buttons. If there’s a school intruder, teachers can press the button to alert police.
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Touching upon the fob worn around her neck, one teacher told NBC News: “We all wear a fob in case there’s a security breach. We can push this button and the entire alarm system goes off in the school.”
There are also black boxes fixed to classroom walls that teachers can use to alert police of security breaches.
In the footage, students can be seen running a security drill; hiding behind flipped school desks and covering their faces with textbooks.
Pupils are also seen stepping over a red line marked on the classroom floor with tape.
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When an NBC journalist asked a classroom teacher about the line, she explained: “The red line is a security measure. That’s in place because if we stand behind this red line, if there’s a shooter at the door, they cannot see the children.”
Addressing the school’s high-tech security measures, the reporter told viewers: “Here they go high-tech. The classroom doors are bullet-resistant and [there are] so many cameras everywhere.
“And it’s not just school officials watching either. They’re connected live with the sheriff’s department 10 miles away. Authorities can track an intruder in real time.”
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Towards the end of the video, the reporter stepped out into the school’s hallway and revealed Southwestern Highschool is also kitted out with secret smoke bombs.
Referred to as ‘hot zones’, he told viewers that the smoke bombs are the school’s ‘secret weapon’ and designed to ‘be loud and disorientate the suspect’.
Revealing just how much it costs Southwestern Highschool to have such an extensive system in place, the reporter said: “The system is expensive – $400,000 – but school officials say it’s worth it in this scary new world.”
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Aisha Nozari