A.L.I.C.E: Are We Prepared?

EVACUATION+Vice+Principal+and+Activities+Director%2C+Troy+Guentzel%2C+poses+as+a+shooter.+A+pseudo-classroom+is+tasked+to+evacuate+the+room+while+fending+the+assailant+off+with+foam+balls.+

EVACUATION Vice Principal and Activities Director, Troy Guentzel, poses as a shooter. A pseudo-classroom is tasked to evacuate the room while fending the assailant off with foam balls.

Across the nation a shadow has stricken across schools. An ever-prevalent risk is gaining more and more attention as the recent events in rural Florida has schools, students, and parents increasingly worried. With the entire country looking towards the politics and ethics of the situation a new front has yet to be discussed. The government has its duties in the way of prevention, but what are the schools’ responsibilities to prevent these disasters? What are New Ulm High School’s responsibilities? A question can’t help but float around campus: Are we prepared?

Within the last few years at New Ulm High School, the administration has changed the way the student body will take on the threat of an attacker. The change involves moving away from the passive procedure in which teachers would lock their doors and gather the students in a corner or another hiding place in the hope that the shooter would believe the classroom to be empty. This lockdown procedure seemed a little too hopeful, even to the students. To replace the old system, New Ulm High School will now be using a procedure called ALICE.

NUHS students getting training in ALICE procedures

 

ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. Alert is the first step, which is to alert as many people as quickly as possible. Whether it is by email, word of mouth, or even text messages. The objective is to spread the word and convey information quickly.

Lockdown is the second step, which is to barricade the room and prepare for the next potential steps of evacuating or countering. After barricading the room, the next step is to inform. Inform is to gather as much information as possible in the short time period allotted. Texting works great, allowing those under attack to be a step ahead of the shooter. Ideally during this time the police would be contacted to inform them about what is known of the situation, to help spread the word.

Counter is the next and least desirable phase of the procedure. If the shooter happens to get into the room, students and faculty are instructed to scream as loudly as possible, to throw objects at the attacker, or even to charge. The idea is to do whatever it takes to distract. This causes the shooter to lose concentration, have poor accuracy, or not even be able to shoot.

The last step is evacuate. This step should only be done when safe departure is relatively secure. When clearance is given that the shooter is not in the immediate area, the idea is to run to the exit in the clear.

Assistant Principal Guentzel simulating an armed intruder situation

Over the last few weeks, all New Ulm High school classes have been learning this acronym and how to implement it. We had first hand experiences of the training and so did senior, Dylan Kotten. “I believe the ALICE program is better, because we’re not sitting ducks. It gives us a better chance to escape or fight back,” says Kotten, “I believe that these training sessions are a good start for understanding the concepts, but I hope to see more real life situations, instead of fake rooms with us just throwing balls at Ziemer.”

There were two distinct lessons that were learned in the recent training: The ability to incapacitate a shooter with grapples, and the ability to use the resources available to fight back against the shooter and escape a tight situation.

In the first practice, the students got together in groups of four to practice taking down Officer Brady Murphy, an advocate and helper with the ALICE training, who was using a fake gun. In the process of taking the “shooter” down, they also had to get the gun away and immobilize the arm the gun was in.

In the other demonstration, the students practiced as if they were in a classroom setting, and used soft foam balls as potential weapons to use against a volunteer assailant, who would approach the classroom setting unexpectedly. On the effectiveness of these procedures, Kotten had to say, “I believe we are more prepared with this than how prepared we were with the old procedure. We would be able to escape or fight back, instead of just sitting and hiding, fearing the shooter; you could now possibly take him head on.”

I believe we are more prepared with this than how prepared we were with the old procedure.

— Dylan Kotten

One of the more grim tales of the ALICE procedure is the ethics that come in to play when teachers and students are in such a stress-inducing situation and are forced to abandon another student in the event they refuse to cooperate. The ALICE doctrine puts forth that in the event a student is in shock and won’t move, refuses to evacuate, or won’t cooperate, the teacher or any other students are trained to leave them behind in regards to the safety of other students. When asked if this rule was ethical, Kotten had to say, “The sad reality is, there could be 20 students saved over one. So yes, because they are our guardians. They don’t think about it and yet it could still happen.”

“Enough case training and research proves the old way doesn’t work,” say Officers Murphy and Michael Brehmer, both highly active in training students and staff ALICE procedures. Murphy added, “From doing these drills of takedowns, and what to do if an intruder enters, it is sure that this new version will work better. I do believe that this school would be prepared for a lockdown as well, especially from all of the bruises I have gotten from the students and staff. I do believe though that more practice would make everyone more comfortable and better able to focus in a situation like this.”