PHOENIX — Sunland Elementary School was locked down for hours on Friday.
It was one of many schools in the area of 7th and Southern avenues locked down while Phoenix Police searched for a suspect in the shooting of a police officer.
When schools go into lockdown, students aren't allowed to leave their classrooms. Protocols are different for every school, but typically the lights are turned off and students remain silent.
"We had to go to the bathroom but there was an emergency lockdown bucket and we had to use it," one student told 12News after the lockdown was over.
"It was nasty," another said.
"Lockdown buckets" are real, according to the Roosevelt School District, which oversees Sunland Elementary.
They're buckets fitted with toilet seats to be used as makeshift bathrooms during long lockdowns.
The buckets are also typically stocked with other supplies as well. A Roosevelt spokesperson said they also include a privacy curtain that can be set up.
Lockdown also means students can't leave for lunch, or have lunch delivered. One parent told 12News her child hadn't eaten at all when she picked her up from the lockdown last Friday.
There are no standards regarding lockdown procedures in Arizona schools, according to state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne.
"The only set standard is that every school has to have a plan," Horne said Monday.
The particulars of that plan are different from school to school, he said.
"Some schools are compact, others are on 40 acres," Horne said. "You can't have a set plan for everybody."
So while the Roosevelt District said the "lockdown buckets" are on their standard list of emergency supplies for their schools, there's nothing that says a school has to have them or how their lockdowns are performed.
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