Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Boston Area Schools consider ALICE Program for dealing with a shooter after Newtown Massacre

Several area school districts are interested in a controversial response to shooting rampages that trains teachers and students to act quickly to save themselves rather than hide in a locked classroom and wait for police. 
Canton Police Chief Kenneth Berkowitz, a vocal supporter of the approach, said more than 10 communities have contacted him since the Dec. 14 Connecticut school shootings to learn about the response training, called ALICE, an acronym for alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate. 
“The old lockdown is pretty much antiquated,” said John Gagnon, a school resource officer in Hopedale, with a population about 6,000. “That whole hide-under-your-desk-and-wait is done.” 
[...] 
ALICE includes alerting law enforcement and locking down in response to an armed attacker, which is common practice. But it also sanctions and trains students and staff to consider other possibilities, such as electing to flee the building; using video cameras and intercom to narrate the real-time movements of the gunman; and a last-ditch “counter” option that involves throwing objects and using body weight to topple a shooter.
Read the full story HERE.

I don't know about this. ...."Use your body weight to topple a shooter". How effective would that be in an elementary school where kids are small? IMHO, the Armed Guard is the way to go. A program like this might be ok as a supplement to an armed guard.

To learn more about this program go HERE.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is going to get kids killed! I am actively fighting the implementation of this program in my children's school district!