What is the bucket for?

Teachers given “active shooter preparation kit” including bucket, duct tape

I guess the school board conquered the first step. They admitted an active shooter incident could happen there. After that it all went to shit. I spent the first seven years of my school life in the Brockton School System. The Huntington school, pictured above, was my elementary school. It was also my mother’s high school. I think the main building was built in the 1890’s.

A wooden wedge to jam a door shut is a pretty good tool. I carried several as part of my SWAT gear. However, one isn’t going to cut it. My memory is hazy, it has been fifty years since I attended Huntington School. I seem to remember that each classroom had two doors opening onto the corridor. I am pretty sure that there was a communicating door between classrooms.  

The rope might come in handy. It might be even more effective if it could be cut into usable lengths. Oops, no knives allowed in school. I guess the hammer could be used to break out a window. Two things argue against that, in the case of my old Alma Mater.  First, the first floor windows are about ten feet off the ground. Second, breaking out a window probably violates some kind of historical landmark rule. Still the hammer can be used to set the doorstop. Duct tape is always handy. It can be used to cover a sucking chest wound.

The bucket has me confused. I suppose it could be used as a toilet during a protracted siege. I suspect that after the first gunshot the puddles of piss throughout the classroom would render the bucket superfluous. 

The whole concept, as applied by the Brockton School District is analogous to offering “make overs” to ugly women. It might work once and a while, but most of the time everybody is going to be disappointed in the result.