With school shootings unfortunately becoming more common around the United States, even just a threat is taken very seriously.
On Friday, January 10, 2025, an ALICE training was conducted in the town of Cascade for faculty and staff to prepare.
“The biggest difference with the ALICE training is it gives teachers and staff members the opportunity to think on their own, if for some reason an event like this was to occur,” explained Michael Wilson, K-12 principal of Cascade School.
The acronym comes from Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. Those are the steps that ALICE training is providing educators with to protect themselves and students.
Wilson added, “This empowers a teacher or staff member to do what they need to do to keep themselves and their students safe.”
In 2024, more than 50 school shootings took place on K-12 school campuses around the United States, causing educators to engage in trainings like this to prepare for these unfortunate situations.
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Principal Wilson explained that the previous lockdown procedures were essentially ineffective and did not allow for proper communication between faculty and staff in the building.
“If we can be as clear and concise [as possible] if there is a potential threat in the building, we will relay that, whether it's through the pa system, or E3 [Emergent 3 public safety app], so that we can more accurately communicate to all of our teachers and staff members of what is going on in,” Wilson explained.
The Cascade school resource officer (SRO) taught the ALICE training on Friday which is being introduced to other schools around the state as well.
Public schools are expected to provide a safe and healthy learning environment for students. Trainings such as these are critical in keeping with that mission.
“I think it’s a really great program and it's always great to be proactive and to learn about some of these techniques,” Wilson expressed. “Any time we have the opportunity for to take on some extra training for our school and keep our school safe, we're more than happy to do that.”
Click here to learn more about ALICE.
