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Comment by Wohlf | Hacker News Reader

I would hazard a guess that it has to do with a lot of American schools being made during the Cold War, and designed to double as emergency shelters.

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That was the impression I always got from my 1984-built Elementary school building. It was all concrete block construction with odd roof angles taken low to the ground. Many fond memories of using the Macintosh LCs in a completely-windowless freezing-cold chamber in the center of the building.

Not just the cold war. My elementary school was originally from the early 20th century and it had the vestiges of the subsequent wars: bomb shelter signs, eerie hallways without windows, heavy metal doors to transition between sections of the building.

> My elementary school was originally from the early 20th century and it had the vestiges of the subsequent wars: bomb shelter signs, eerie hallways without windows, heavy metal doors to transition between sections of the building.

Some/all of that have less to do with war and more to do with general disaster preparedness.

* Bomb shelters provide shelter from...bombs, yeah

* Windowless hallways provide shelter from tornadoes (no glass to break/become shrapnel)

* The heavy metal doors are firewalls that automatically close when the alarm goes off (most are hollow, won't do shit against assault weapons and predate even Columbine)

You know, that might actually be a reasonable explanation.

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