Dressed in protective gear, Stoughton school employees and Stoughton Police personnel recently received training in a more flexible way to respond to an active shooter situation in a school setting.
ALICE - an acronym for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate - was developed by Greg Crane, a former SWAT police officer, and Lisa Crane a school principal.
In the case of a school shooting, the common practice has been for a school to go into traditional lockdown, but this more passive approach might not be as effective as the more proactive defense ALICE offers, supporters of the program say.
Instead of simply hiding under a desk as a shooter is in the school, the ALICE program encourages teachers and students to make informed decisions based on their surroundings.
Perhaps the safest thing to do is to barricade the room by placing cabinets and desks in front of the doors, or securing the door in place with a belt. Or it may be to evacuate the building if the shooter is at the opposite end of the school. If the shooter enters the room, you are encouraged to distract and disorient him or her.
As the events are playing out, staff in the office keeps those in the building abreast of the situation by sharing the shooters location via the PA system, helping students, teachers and staff make these more informed decisions.
The Stoughton Schools and Stoughton Police Department both support the ALICE program. After select officers and administrators were trained in ALICE last school year, the school department and police department are holding joint training sessions to train all staff and officers this year.
Take a look at the video above of footage from an ALICE training session at Stoughton High in late August. Hear from Stoughton Police School Resource Officer Robert Kuhn, Stoughton Police Juvenile Detective Roger Hardy, O'Donnell Middle School assistant principal David Guglia and Stoughton High principal Julie Miller as they discuss the training and the benefits of the ALICE program.
Click here to read more about the program.
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