Florida’s Parkland student activists are focusing on gun control to stop multiple shootings in schools. But Massachusetts schools in Brockton are getting buckets, tape, hammers and ropes to help protect students from bullets.
More than 1,000 of the buckets filled with supplies for a barricade or lock-down situation will be distributed to classrooms in the coming weeks.
The supplies were the brainchild of the Brockton school district, the mayor’s office and the Brockton Police Department. Workers have been filling 5 gallon blue buckets provided at a discount by Lowe’s with a wooden wedge (to keep classroom doors shut), a 1 pound hammer, a 50 foot length of rope and a roll of duct tape.
The hammer could be used to break windows for escape, and the tape could seal doors in case of smoke, said officials. Buckets could be used in an “emergency bathroom situation,” Brockton Public Schools Deputy Superintendent Mike Thomas told the Brockton newspaper, The Enterprise.
“If something bad happens, you have to think quickly on your feet,” Thomas said. “Teachers can’t be running around the room looking for cords, or looking for something to smash a window. Now they know exactly where everything is.”
A Lowe’s store manager noted that there’s “no better way to give back than to the kids of the future.”
Students told CBS Boston that they’re OK with the buckets. “It’s kind of weird, but it’s for safety, so I’d do anything for safety,” a student said.