In the event of an active shooter entering a school, students can find themselves fearfully trapped inside their classrooms for hours on end as part of their lockdown procedures without any means of relieving themselves, should the need arise.
In an effort to remedy this, some Colorado schools have included buckets of kitty litter on their back-to-school supplies list to act as impromptu toilets for children during a lockdown, Insider reported.
Since January, there have been a total off 22 shootings at U.S. schools in which someone was hurt or killed.
These shootings have occurred all across the country, from Michigan to California, and everywhere else in between.
Among those schools are the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where a gunman who was a former student opened fire on the last day of classes and killed two people, injured another four more.
With no foreseeable decrease in school shootings, districts are hastily preparing for the upcoming new school year to make their students as safe as possible.
Such preparations include encouraging the purchase of bulletproof backpacks or backpack inserts for children, hiring armed “school marshals” , and frequently completing active shooter and lockdown drills, so all students know exactly what the procedure is if someone poses a threat to their school or their safety.
Some gun rights supporters have even rallied for teachers to learn how to use firearms so they can protect themselves and their students against active shooters.
Some Colorado schools are tackling another, less talked-about issue surrounding these often lengthy lockdowns: no toilets.
That’s why teachers are now asking parents to donate buckets filled with kitty litter, so that their children are able to relieve themselves if they become trapped inside their classroom.
Dubbed “go buckets,” they’ve been added to the supply lists at such schools as Jeffco Public in Denver.
According to school spokeswoman Diana Wilson, an incident several years ago was the inspiration for the “go buckets.”
After a prolonged lockdown left students forced to relieve themselves in trash bags, school officials decided better options needed to be available for the trapped students.
“We’re literally treating our children like animals.”
Jeffco Public Schools seventh grade teacher Cassie Lopez featured in a Twitter video in which she explained the “go buckets” further, adding that teachers will also be provided with first aid kits, toilet paper, and a pop-up tent for the buckets to allow the students some privacy.
She also said teachers will be given sharpie markers for a rather grim reason: if they ever need to tie a tourniquet around gunshot wound, they’re supposed to write the time of the bandaging on the student’s body so paramedics know how long they’ve been bleeding.
Lopez said that “this isn’t normal” and said these supplies are a reflection of “where our country is right now.”
“The fact that there is a need to have a makeshift toilet in our classroom just says so much about where we’re at,” she said.
h/t: Insider
