North Greene approves ALICE training for personnel
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By Carmen Ensinger
Several months ago, North Greene School District looked into the Navigate 360 and ALICE training for its district personnel.
“A lot of it was connected to risk, specifically training on what to do if there is an intruder in the building,” Principal Jackie Kuchy said. “We sent some of our staff to the training for that and then they are going to train the rest of our district this fall.”
ALICE is an anacronym for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate.
ALERT is when you first become aware of a threat. The sooner you understand that you’re in danger, the sooner you can save yourself. A speedy response is critical. Seconds count.
Alert is overcoming denial, recognizing the signs of danger and receiving notifications about the danger from others. Alerts should be accepted, taken seriously, and should help you make survival decisions based on your circumstances.
LOCKDOWN means barricading the room and perhaps preparing to evacuate or counter if needed. If evacuation is not a safe option, barricade entry points into your room in an effort to create a semi-secure starting point.
ALICE trainers instruct on practical techniques for how to better barricade a room, what to do with mobile and electronic devices, how and when to communicate with police, and how to use your time in lockdown to prepare to use other strategies (i.e. Counter or Evacuate) that might come into play should the active shooter gain entry.
The purpose of INFORM is to continue to communicate information in as real time as possible, if it is safe to do so. Information should always be clear, direct and in plain language, not using codes. Video surveillance, 911 calls and PA announcements are just a few of the channels that may be used by employees, safety officers, and other personnel to inform others. An emergency response plan should have clear methods outlined for informing school employees, hospital workers, or any other employees of the location of a violent intruder.
The purpose of COUNTER is to Create Noise, Movement, Distance and Distraction with the intent of reducing the shooter’s ability to shoot accurately. Counter is NOT fighting.
ALICE Training does not believe that actively confronting a violent intruder is the best method for ensuring the safety of those involved. Counter is a strategy of last resort. Counter focuses on actions that create noise, movement, distance and distraction with the intent of reducing the shooter’s ability to shoot accurately. Creating a dynamic environment decreases the shooter’s chance of hitting a target and can provide the precious seconds needed in order to evacuate.
EVACUATE means when it is safe to do so, one is supposed to remove themselves from the danger zone.
ALICE provides techniques for safer and more strategic evacuations. Evacuating to a safe area takes people out of harm’s way and hopefully prevents civilians from having to come into any contact with the shooter. ALICE trainers teach strategies for evacuating through windows, from higher floors and under extreme duress.
Begun in 2000, ALICE Training is a widely adopted, effective method of active shooter response training. In 2020, ALICE Training became a part of Navigate360’s suite of safety programs for schools, workplaces and other communities.
However, Navigate 360 focuses on more than just active shooters and intruders.
“We had someone from the company come in and do a risk assessment of all of our facilities and provide us a report that identified our vulnerabilities in regards to safety, not just related to intruders,” Kuchy said. “We just received that report back so we will be looking through those findings.”
Kuchy said the report gives some short term and long term goals for improving their safety and security.
“The company did an overall kind of risk assessment, which is an overall part of the intent,” Kuchy said. “We felt that there are some of our policies and procedures that need to be altered. Our staff that did attend the training tended to feel strongly about making some changes to our past practices.”
Kuchy said the district has a risk management team that has people from all job classifications and this team will meet and go through the district’s policies and procedures and determine what changes need to be made.
