By Emily Mitchell

Administration and staff are learning a new way to keep students safe if an armed intruder enters the building. The previous plan told students and staff to lock the door, throw desks or heavy furniture in front of the door, and sit out of sight of the windows. Now, students and staff have another options with the “ALICE” plan.

ALICE is an acronym for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate.

A key feature of the ALICE plan is that any of the A-L-I-C-E The “alert” steps can be utilized if the situation calls for it. Each letter stands for a type of action.

“A” stands for “alert,” which notifies the building of an intruder.  This can be through a PA announcement, a phone call, or even a gunshot.

“Lockdown” calls for locking and barricading the door, covering the windows, and gathering weapons (pencils, coffee cups, staplers, etc.) to use against the shooter if there are no ways of escaping.

The next step is to “inform.” Students and teachers are to text parents, call 9-1-1, contact outside the building any way they can.  Authorities will need any real-time information they can get in order to locate the shooter as quickly as possible.

“C” stands for “counter.” If you are in a serious situation, you are supposed to “counter” the intruder. This means do whatever you need to do to escape and get out of a dangerous situation. This could mean biting or kicking the intruder.  It may mean throwing things, creating chaos, or even charging the person.

The “E” stands for “evacuate.”  In the past, the plan was to just stay put and wait for help.  Now students and staff are told to simply get out of the building or out of danger as fast as possible. Simple steps may be running in a zig-zag line (in case intruder is shooting, this makes one harder to hit), away from intruder or until you are out of the area.  This could also mean breaking open windows or doors, anything to get out of the building.

This new plan is NOT a five step by step system.  Any one of these step are to be taken at any point in time.  The new plan gives students and staff multiple options in order to stay as safe as possible and get out of the situation.

Teachers in the ACSD have spent their past two Wednesday professional development sessions learning about the ALICE system from the Atlantic Police Department.