Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evaluate – a school’s plan for the worst

As school safety becomes a more prominent and pressing concern, many schools rely on the same system to guide their communication and response to an active shooter.

 

ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate. It teaches kids not just to sit in silence, but to stay active and look for an escape.

 

According to the ALICE website, this program is used in 4,200 K-12 School Districts, as well as 1300 healthcare facilities and 480 houses of worship. They have a wide variety of training programs that suit everyone from trained police forces to crisis communication to the evacuation of people with disabilities and emergent limitations.  

 

Kent State University made ALICE training mandatory for all incoming freshmen in 2014. It started with optional training for faculty and staff, but students pushed for it to be more widely offered. “Students said ‘we want access to this,’” said Meghan Factor-Page, Assistant

Director of Student Success Programs. “That’s when it became mandatory for FYE.” Factor-Page is also the Director of Provost Leadership Academy, the group of freshmen who were responsible for making this program required.

 

Kent City Police teach the courses for all incoming freshmen and surrounding city schools. Kent Theodore Roosevelt High School is one place that began using the ALICE program after the 2012 shooting at Chardon High School. But Principal Love says the emphasis of these programs has grown since the attack in Parkland, Fl. that killed 17 students.  

 

Principal Love of Kent Theodore Roosevelt High School says the training’s core mission is to take action if you can: “Get out, be a leader if you can, but work as a team.” This program was developed by former swat officer and teacher Greg Crane, intended to supplement the total “lock-down” method that tragically failed in 1999 at Columbine High School.

“Training goes all way to kindergarten,” said Principal Love, although the teaching style in kindergarten is obviously very different than what the high school students learn. “They teach them if someone comes in, to run around, scream, yell, make a scene, or to line up with the teacher.”

 

Principal Love said that students first had ALICE training exposure four years ago, but just two weeks ago the freshmen all went to another ALICE training seminar. And the Principal said he heard a lot of positive feedback.

 

“I’m sure every student has it in the back of their minds,” Principal Love said the students are very aware of these issues. “During our first fire drill, there were definitely some students who were more nervous than in the past.”

 

Kent Theodore Roosevelt High School students also participated in a walk-out March 14  in solidarity with the victims of Parkland and the student-led #NeverAgain movement. Principal Love said only about 300 students walked out – following they had an assembly. The whole protest lasted about 17 minutes and was resolved calmly.

 

Following Parkland, Love said the school really started to revisit their safety policies.“Right after spring break, we put a team together of teachers, students, security, administration, to evaluate safety, what we are doing, what we could be doing, and try to improve our system,” he said. Although ALICE is a good plan to get students to think about their options and how to take action, the school and parents still have some concerns to address.

 

“There are some individuals who want to go straight to metal detectors,” Principal Love explains. “I don’t think it’s a good option. Roosevelt has 74 entrances and exits – it doesn’t make sense to arm one of them when there are 73 other entrances they could get in, just by shooting the door.”

 

Teachers and students of Roosevelt listed a few solutions they hope to implement. One major one – doors that lock from the inside. “Right now our teachers have to go outside their door to lock it,” said Principal Love. He also emphasized how communication is key in these critical moments.

 

Principal Love said the recent drills have been more frequent, but also more successful and taken seriously. “All were luckily resolved, the students and teachers did great, and in the future, we will be better prepared.”