This Friday, Atlantic High School will be participating in the ALICE drill. AHS faculty and students will be working in cooperation with the Atlantic Police Department, Cass County Sheriff, as well as the Iowa State Patrol to conduct the drill.

The ALICE drill is a lockdown/intruder drill. A.L.I.C.E. is an acronym for:

ALERT: Get the word out that a threat exists

LOCKDOWN: Secure a place to stay as much as possible as a starting point to buy time.

INFORM: Give constant, real-time information throughout the building using all possible technology.

COUNTER: This is a last resort. Individuals are unable to escape. Countering may be as simple as creating a distraction to allow opportunities to escape.

EVACUATE: The goal is to move students out of the danger zone. It’s important to be prepared to escape.

Atlantic isn’t the first school in southwest Iowa to take part in the ALICE drill or a drill in similarity to it. Other schools such as Harlan, Creston and CAM do participate in these types of drills also.

In a phone call with Creston guidance counselor Angie Bolinger, she confirmed that Creston does indeed take part in various scenario drills throughout the school; however, their school does not do active intruder drills.

Instead, Bolinger said, several times a year Creston puts on a scenario to “announce” there is an intruder in one place or another. For example, if they announce “intruder in the library,” students in classrooms near the library would react differently than those across the school and further away from that location.

The Creston counselor also confirmed that her school holds these drills at least once per quarter, and they have already run one scenario this school year. Bolinger said that the first drill this year went okay. “(Reaction) varies for each student, depending on where they are located within the building. It’s a valuable opportunity for our students.”

Bolinger also commented that these types of scenarios can prepare students for more than just the school setting. It helps prepare them for similar places this type of active intruder situation could go on, such as malls and theaters.

This year is Creston’s third year practicing these kinds of scenarios throughout their school. Creston has also had students view videos on what to do in intruder emergency situations. Bolinger said usually before the school year the faculty also uses an afternoon to do a live drill.

Bolinger explained that different teachers are taught to do things differently, depending on the age of their students. Kindergarten teachers are trained to remain calm and keep their students calm whereas a high school teacher may be instructed differently to actually inform their students about the current situation.

Creston usually chooses not to warn the students when they will be participating in these drills, and that is why they tend to choose not to do live/active drills. They don’t want to give their students a live scare during the drills without warning.

Bolinger said that this training comes at no cost to their district. The only thing the school really loses is the paid hours for the faculty to go through this type of training. The Police Department and Sheriff’s Office do this out of volunteer at no cost to help prepare and train the faculty.

One last comment from Bolinger included that Creston is working on upgrading their security systems and updating their cameras for more security around their campus and facilities.

ALICE DRILL PARENT LETTER: alicedrillparentletter