A Newport Beach teenager has come up with an unlikely invention to help protect students in case of a school shooting: a bulletproof skateboard.

Griffin Burke, 19, had the idea after a former Ph.D. student killed a professor and himself on the UCLA campus last year.

Burke, a political-science student at Loyola Marymount University, said he talked about the tragedy with his roommate and the two wondered what they would do in that kind of situation.

“I would probably just hold up my board and run,” Burke’s roommate said.

That sparked an idea in Burke’s mind: What if a skateboard could serve as a shield?

After many months and prototypes came the Turtle Board, which boasts a bulletproof deck that can stop a host of ammunition types, from 9mm to .44 Magnum, Burke said. The boards have been tested on a firing range using a variety of ammo.

Burke said the name Turtle Board was inspired by the qualities of a turtle shell — hard and protective.

The design of the bulletproof Turtle Board, pictured on its Kickstarter page, enables riders to customize it by placing pictures or artwork between the two clear panels. The board also has colored lighted wheels. (Turtle Boards)

The decks have a turtle shell printed on them and come in multiple colors. The wheels have built-in lights.

Burke, a Newport Harbor High School graduate and a former Newport lifeguard, said school shootings are a source of anxiety for many students.

“To some people, it’s not a statistic,” Burke said. “It actually happened to them.”

He’s looking to raise $50,000 in seed money on the Kickstarter website to fund his enterprise. According to the Turtle Board page, there have been 227 school shootings in the United States since 2013. The page includes videos of the firing range tests.

The boards retail for $185. Early backers can have them for $165.

For more information, visit kickstarter.com and search for “bulletproof skateboard.”

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint