Have You Heard About ALICE?

By Mitch Evans

In July 2014, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick released the recommendations of his Massachusetts Task Force on School Safety and Security. The recommendations specifically include ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate) as appropriate training for school safety.

ALICE was developed after the Columbine High School tragedy in 1999, and it teaches strategies to survive a life-threatening event.  Supported by educators and law enforcement organizations, ALICE is quickly becoming the new standard of care across the nation. Here in Bedford, the School Safety and Security Task Force, which met extensively in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting tragedy, recommended adoption of the Alice protocols in Bedford.

The schools have spent the past year and a half researching and then training staff, initially at the high school and middle school, and later, in age appropriate ways, will introduce the approach to the elementary schools. Keith Kinney (Assistant Principal at Lane), Matt Mehler (Assistant Principal at JGMS), and Kate Boynton (Assistant Principal at BHS) along with our district’s two resource officers (Sergent Jeffery Wardwell and Officer Steven Waite) head up a fully trained ALICE team.

So how is ALICE different from the protocols that were in place last year?

While interviewing Assistant Principals Kinney and Mehler, it became clear that staff and teachers are now very well trained in situational response measures which provide alternative options for staff and children to get to safety quicker. In the past the recommendation was to go into ‘lockdown’ mode. In other words, for staff and students to lock doors and remain in place until help arrived.  However, with these new recommendations which have been developed hand in hand with the Federal Department of Education, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), it is recognized that a more proactive, options based approach is better for saving lives.

Although the initials in ALICE suggest a response in sequential order, this is not necessarily the case. Staff are trained to assess a situation and to respond in the most effective way. This is where the continual free flowing of information is vital and our schools’ public address systems as well as wireless technology play a key part in ensuring staff and students are informed on the nature and the proximity of the threat. The teacher is then able to make an informed decision on which action to take. The most likely alternative to simply locking down is to choose to evacuate and to put as much distance between students and the immediate danger whenever possible. All students and staff are encouraged to use active resistance to help save lives. Active resistance means to lock and barricade doors using chairs, desks and other heavy items, and in the case of the older age groups, and only as a last resort, for example if an active shooter has actually entered a student-filled classroom, to use whatever tools are at hand, including group force, to incapacitate the aggressor should they be confronted by him or her.

Bedford’s District Crisis Team is made up of personnel from the police and fire departments, the four school administrators, district and school nurses, guidance counselors and facilities staff. There is also a Crisis Team specific to each of our four schools. As a district, Bedford also has close connections with NEMLEC (Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council), which is a consortium of police departments in Middlesex and Essex counties. This means that officers and resources from NEMLEC’s agencies can be made available to Bedford, in the event of an emergency. With reference to our local Police Department’s website, Bedford is also participating in the School Threat Assessment and Response System (STARS) program, which is “a comprehensive program to prepare, assess, respond, and strive to prevent threats of violence in our schools through mobilizing regional resources that recognize the individual uniqueness and integrity of each community.” https://bedfordpolice.weebly.com/stars.html

The most important message that Kinney and Mehler wanted the local community to take away from this article was to feel reassured that our four schools are extremely well prepared. That there are excellent communication processes in place to disseminate information both internally, within the schools, and externally, to first responders and the community, and that the new ALICE protocols only help to make our schools an even safer place to be. Should you have any questions about ALICE or school safety you are encouraged to visit the school district website at https://www.bedford.k12.ma.us/about-our-district/emergency.html or contact the relevant school principal.