HOUSTON — Parents, we asked about your concerns going into the new school year. Overwhelmingly, you told us you are worried about school safety. We all want safe schools for our kids. But what do safe schools look like? We spoke with architects Jay Brotman and Karina Ruiz to get their insight.

Brotman, a managing partner at Svigals + Partners, has designed schools for nearly 30 years. He was tasked with laying out the new Sandy Hook School after the shooting that took the lives of 20 students and six teachers.

"This was a situation where nobody knew where to go. It was a community in distress," Brotman said. "After an incident like this, and it happens all over, the first reaction for everybody is to build a fortress and put our kids inside this fortress." 

The new Sandy Hook Elementary School building, which opened in 2016, is the opposite of a fortress.

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