A couple of decades ago, schools across America dealt with the growing problem of school shootings, by implementing lockdown procedures designed to ensure student safety.
But research into the effectiveness of those procedures revealed that a different approach to security was necessary. In 1028, New Canaan Public Schools adopted ALICE training, to improve the district’s approach to safety.
“With the number of critical incidents that have occurred throughout the country over the years, each incident has unfortunately taught us that there was a need for an enhanced plan to provide individuals options and not just hide,” assistant principal Kristi Carriero said. “The last lockdown drill was just, freeze. But research shows that evacuating or barricading provides time and distance.”
ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. The new approach, developed by the ALICE Training, is designed to give students and staff options for survival in an active shooter situation, according to the company’s website.
The ALICE program is implemented through layers of training, with the ALICE organization themselves teaching the first exercises to district administration. “The training was provided by ALICE, and then we worked with the school safety team to teach it to faculty and students,” said Ms.Carriero.
According to their website, ALICE is the current plan for over 5,500 districts, nationwide. “One of the reasons we chose ALICE as our program is that it is aligned with the recommendations of both the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Education, who realized that the traditional lockdowns were not effective,” Ms. Carriero said.
According to the school resource officer, Geoff Lambert, ““I have great faith in this program, because it gives you the individual initiative, so there are more options for everyone ALICE drill allows students to fight, escape, or barricade.”
