by Rachel Minske
Contributing Writer
The Elk River Area School District is shaking up how it plans to respond in the event of a possible active shooter situation at one of its schools or buildings.
Gone are the days when students and staff will shut off classroom lights and crouch down out of sight from windows, said Judy Johnson, manager of prevention, safety and grants for the district.
A new program from the ALICE Training Institute, called ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate), offers a more proactive approach, which staff believes could save lives.
Johnson, joined by Corbin Bateman, Rogers school resource officer, showed photos from past active shooter situations from across the country to the School Board Jan. 9 during a presentation about ALICE.
“I hope that we never have an active shooter situation in our school district, but we need to prepare just in case something happens,” Johnson said.
Bateman, who has 27 years of law enforcement experience, said the district currently employs two main safety tactics: lockdown, which occurs when there is a threat or intruder in or near the building, and secure mode, which occurs when there is a threat outside the building and access to and from the building is limited.
Currently, there are multiple types of lockdowns used in district schools, said Bateman. Different lockdowns call for different protocol and staff and students often lose time because they’re unclear about which safety procedures to use, he said. Lockdowns usually call for students and staff to hide in corners, shut off the lights and keep quiet in order to hide from active shooters.
Bateman said he learned a number of “valuable lessons” from Colorado’s Columbine High School massacre in 1999, in which a pair of students murdered 12 of their peers and one teacher. Twenty-one others were also injured in the incident.
“A lot of casualties took place in the media center,” Bateman said of Columbine. “Students had exits and could have left, but were told to stay.”
ALICE employs a more proactive, aggressive approach to dealing with active shooters. Under the program, students and staff will be provided with tools and information that have the potential to save lives, Johnson said.
According to its website, alicetraining.com, ALICE training has taken place in 50 states and throughout 3,700 K-12 school districts.
The following steps are non-sequential and provide schools a number of options when dealing with an active shooter, Johnson said.
Alert: Students and staff will be given specific information about what is happening, if possible. For example, staff may use the PA system to announce there is an active shooter in the cafeteria. The goal is to provide as much information as possible and avoid the use of code words.
Lockdown: Under this use of “lockdown,” those inside the building should lock doors to provide extra time, and if evacuation is not possible, they should barricade entry points using whatever is available, such as desks, tables, chairs or garbage cans.
Inform: Provide real-time information by all means possible and use clear and direct language. Students and staff should be flexible as the situation will be dynamic and fluid.
Counter: Different than past practices, this part of ALICE calls for those in the building to become aggressive with the perpetrator, even throwing things like staplers or laptops at the active shooter to throw off their movements. Making noise and swarming the active shooter is also encouraged.
Evacuate: This part of ALICE encourages students and staff to exit the building whenever possible.
So far, the district has completed about 25 training sessions with staff and the feedback so far has been positive. Through ALICE, staff feels empowered instead of feeling like “sitting ducks,” she said.
“The strategies that we taught staff this year can be used not only in school buildings, but also in the community,” she said.
School Board Member Christi Tullbane said she appreciated the ALICE program.
“I never liked the hide-and-seek concept,” she said.
Director Joel Nelson said he would like to see a more proactive approach to preventing active shooter situations from ever happening in the first place.
Bateman said that’s an effort that’s already employed.
“We want to identify these kids before they ever come to school,” he said, adding the district is aware of students with risk factors like domestic violence at home, a history of mental illness or a family history of suicide.
“We’re identifying these kids really early,” Bateman said.
What’s next
Moving forward, the No. 1 goal is to train staff so they feel well equipped to respond to crisis situations. Discussions about ALICE have already begun in many district classrooms, said Johnson. Providing training for students on the practices will come, but will be rolled out slowly.