Think portable toilets in classrooms are gross? Blame school shootings

A lockdown bucket at Lake Central High School and its contents.

CROWN POINT — Social media has been abuzz recently with discussion over buckets in classrooms that double as toilets.

One California teacher, Larry Lexicon, who often posts funny and satirical videos from his classroom to Instagram, TikTok and Youtube posted a video involving these bucket toilets recently that saw backlash from angry commenters. In the January video, Lexicon jokes about his students taking too many bathroom breaks so he's going to make them use a bucket in the classroom.

"Either you hold it or you're using a bucket," Lexicon said in the video. "It's up to you. How bad do you need to go to the bathroom?"

Commenters, seemingly oblivious to the satire, latched onto the video, accusing Lexicon of cruelty towards his students. In responding to these accusations, — which he said were translating to angry phone calls and emails to school administration — Lexicon took a moment to send a more serious message. He posted a second video where he asks his students to guess the real reason he has the bucket in his classroom.

"I think a lot of people don't know why we have this bucket," he said, "or that this bucket even exists."

When none of the students could deduce the true reason, he explained that the buckets were there because of the continually growing threat of of school shootings across the U.S. that cause schools to go into extended lockdowns where students can't go to the normal restrooms. He explained that inside the bucket and an accompanying backpack is a variety of things the class would need in the event of an extended lockdown including blankets to cover dead bodies and other supplies.

"These people on TikTok complaining about the bucket — how many of them do you think go to work everyday and have to worry about maybe pooping in a bucket because there's a shooter at their work? Not very many, but you do. Everyone in this classroom does," he said. "So people being upset about our bucket video, they're upset about the wrong thing. They should be upset that these buckets exist, that we're at a point where we need these buckets."

As of Monday, there were at least 44 incidents of gunfire on school grounds in the U.S. in 2023 alone, resulting in 19 deaths and 33 injuries nationally, according to Everytown Research. Since 2013, there have been at least 1069 incidents, resulting in 357 deaths and 757 injuries.

Many in Northwest Indiana might be surprised to learn that these buckets are becoming commonplace in schools here locally.

"For the last five years, there's been a real transition from how we look at safety and security and the trends that we're noticing throughout the country," Dave Coulson, supervisor of school safety at Crown Point School Corp., said. "It's not a one-and-done scenario for us. We are always looking for best practices, lessons learned when there's an event somewhere, whether its in our area or throughout the country. It's an ever-evolving practice."

One of the latest evolutions to this practice, Coulson explained, is these lockdown buckets, which CPCS spent the fall semester implementing. As of early February, every classroom in the district had one as well as other areas in the schools such as cafeterias and gymnasiums. The district also has spares.

Seven hundred buckets were donated by Gus Bock's Ace Hardware and the district filled those buckets with food, blankets, glucose sticks that students with diabetes or other conditions can use as well as other supplies. They can also, like the one in Lexicon's classroom, can be used as portable toilets as the district has included privacy curtains, toilet paper and toilet deodorant.

"It's an issue of just trying to be proactive," he said. "That wasn't initially built into our plans but it now is."

Coulson wanted to stress that these buckets are just one part of a larger school safety plan. He also said they can be used in the event of other types of emergencies such as a tornado.

As for how the district identified the need for these buckets, Coulson said that they have Lake Central School Corp. and its response to a recent incident to thank.

In September 2021, Lake Central High School students were forced into a lockdown situation that lasted over five hours following threats of an active shooter in the building. The threat was unfounded but it took several hours for officials to determine that.

Lake Central High School lockdown

Coulson said he, along with school safety officials from throughout the area, were invited to attend debriefing sessions.

"When they did their after-action report, they started looking at the good, the bad and the ugly that occurred there," he said. "One of the things that they found was that because this event went on for more than several hours hours and they were confined to their offices and classrooms since nobody could leave the classrooms for safety reasons, things might be needed to sustain them until the event is over with."

The solution that LCSC identified was these lockdown buckets, an idea that Coulson and other school safety officials brought back to their own districts.

The person responsible for that idea is Corporal Brian Kissinger, a school resource officer with LCSC and Dyer Police Department. When the incident happened, Kissinger said he had already been considering implementing these buckets, and the lockdown demonstrated to the community why it was a good idea.

"It's just a matter of making sure we have the tools needed to help in an emergency situation," he said. "We just wanted to make sure that we had enough supplies that make sense and would help during a crisis."

The buckets at LCSC, which were implemented by August of the next school year, include 18 items including the bucket and toilet lid, he said. It also includes a tourniquet, a hammer to break windows, a first aid kit, medical shears and gauze, among other things.

Coulson is thankful to the community which fundraised to make this happen. He explained the town councils in Dyer, St. John and Schererville, — the three towns that constitute the district — local businesses and district families donated a combined $36,000 to purchase these buckets and supplies.

Meanwhile, School City of Hammond, Northwest Indiana's largest school district, is working on implementing emergency safety bags, which will contain several of the items in the buckets at CPSC and LCSC, but will be a bag rather than a bucket that doubles as a toilet, Hammond Superintendent Scott Miller said.

Miller said that several of SCH's elementary schools already have them, but he and his administration hope to implement them into every Hammond classroom by the fall.

Get local news delivered to your inbox!

A teenager was found dead Sunday morning near McDonald's in Highland, according to the Highland Police Department.