On Monday, Cullman City Schools debuted a pilot program for a new type of defense system aimed at protecting children inside of their classrooms in the event of an active shooter situation. Local lawmakers are saying it could be “the solution we’ve been looking for.”

On Tuesday, March 13, owner and CEO of both KT Outdoors and KT Security Solutions Kevin Thomas admitted there is little he is able to do to address the “bigger issues” factoring into school violence. But, following the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas in May 2022, he decided to look into what he could address in terms of safety.

“I can’t control policies. I can’t control gun control or mental illness. I don’t control anything. I’m not a policy maker. I’m just a contractor that lives out in the woods at Jones Chapel. What we do have control over is the ability to make things that are innovative in the meantime,” Thomas said.

At the time of the Texas shooting, KT Outdoors was already offering both quick-deploy shooting houses and modular homes which they advertise as being capable of being fully constructed in as little as 20 minutes. But the company had been working on ways to adapt its patented interlocking corner system to provide ballistic shelters for the U.S. military when Thomas received a phone call from his wife informing him of the events in Uvalde.

Thomas then began modifying the design into one that could be integrated into a classroom setting. KT Outdoor Director of Operations Anthony Scott, said that from a construction standpoint, there is little difference between the original shooting houses they offered and these safe rooms — other than the materials used.

Instead of a standard residential exterior door, Scott said they began working with the engineers at prison manufacturing company Cornerstone Detention in Decatur, Ala., to develop a door that once locked can only be opened from the inside. The panels are also lined with NIJ Level III ballistic defense materials from Honeywell, tested to stop up to seven .62 mm full metal jacket lead filled rounds.

The panels are then lined with a whiteboard material and placed onto a rolling track system allowing the safe room to be deployed in less than 10 seconds. Scott said after consulting with local school resource officers and school safety experts, two beta versions — one deployable and one permanent version — were installed in Cullman City’s West Elementary School special needs classrooms. Scott said due to the drop-in ceilings inside of the classroom, a “proprietary system” was also installed to prevent the tiles from being lifted.

Special Education Teacher Hali Marquette said she was a bit taken aback when she first laid eyes on the fully deployed safe room.

“It’s taking up the whole back corner of my classroom,” she said. After living with the design for the last month, however, Marquette has grown to see its benefits. She said she prefers to leave the walls pulled out and has installed sensory toys on the interior walls that she uses as an incentive to reward good behavior.

“It’s been a learning experience, but my kids — the second graders — they love it. They like to call it the ‘calm cottage.’” Marquette said.

Scott said the company initially wanted to keep the cost per unit below a $20,000 threshold, but currently due to the ballistic materials having to be custom ordered from Honeywell, a standard unit costs between $50,000 to $60,000. Scott said Honeywell has committed to lowering those costs after more orders begin to come in, but he was unsure of what the final cost would be.

Thomas said he has been working with legislatures to develop several available avenues for schools to find funding to purchase a system, including homeland security grants — but hoped people didn’t get “hung up on” whether or not funding came from a school’s education budget.

“I want to give everybody here the opportunity to kiss their kids goodnight tonight. That’s it, there’s not anything bigger than that, so we don’t want to get hung up on too many things like that,” Thomas said.

Alabama Sen. Garlan Gudger said that during last week’s State of Address, Gov. Kay Ivey expressed her intention to increase the line item for school safety this year.

“Hopefully as time progresses, we’ll be able to get to where every school has a safety protocol in their school,” Gudger said.

Cullman City School Superintendent Kyle Kallhoff said he first learned of the system after approached being by West Elementary Principal Jay Page expressing his concerns over several “security gaps on campus.” Kallhoff said the district was lucky to have enough advancing technology grant funds available to allow them to launch this pilot program.