The Quitman School District is the first school in Arkansas to construct safety rooms in every single classroom. The steel-walled additions are to protect students from active school shooters and tornadoes, which have been known to strike the area.
The safety rooms cost the school district nearly $1 million, according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
The incentive to add the rooms was heightened when tornadoes hit the surrounding area in 2014. The tornado outbreak ravaged Vilonia and Mayflower. The storm complex destroyed the Vilonia Middle School as well as many other homes, vehicles, and businesses in the area. 193 people were hurt in the storm.
The school district is located in the rural setting of Quitman in Cleburne and Faulkner county. The population of Quitman was last measured at 762.
