These 'barricade buckets' double as toilets for school lockdowns

Middletown City Schools is accepting donations for classroom "barricade buckets," emergency kits that provide necessary supplies for students and teachers in case of a lockdown.

The buckets also could function as toilets if students and staff are barricaded in a room for an extended period of time, district spokesperson Dan Wohler said. An example kit on display during a supply drive Wednesday included a toilet seat that attaches to the top of the bucket.

The district's partnership with Atrium Medical Center and the Middletown Division of Police comes after the most recent school shooting at an elementary school in Nashville, where a gunman killed three children and three adults. There have been eight mass shootings at K-12 schools since 2006.

“During a natural disaster or lockdown situation, the last thing students should be worried about are their basic needs. We can proactively address those needs with these buckets,” Mandi Alcorn, director of nursing at Atrium Medical Center, said in a Monday news release. “The buckets could make a difficult situation a little more comfortable for students.”

Each 5-gallon bucket costs $130 and will be filled with toilet paper, hand sanitizer, gauze, gloves, bandages, flashlights, snacks and other items that could be needed in an extended crisis.

Atrium Medical Center employees have raised more than $2,000 to kick-start the project, according to Monday's announcement. In the coming months the district is hoping to raise enough funds to purchase 72 buckets for Middletown Middle School, and eventually enough to purchase 465 buckets total, one for every classroom.

“Students expect to come to school and be in an environment that is safe for them to learn and we want to help provide that,” Jason Deaton, a school resource officer, said in the release. “We're hoping to have these buckets in every classroom in the district, as every single life is just as important as the next.”

Donations can be made online.