The nationwide school safety ALICE practice is a lockdown protection method to prepare for an unexpected armed intruder or threat. Metea Valley administration has conducted many of these drills in the past to ensure student protection, however, not many of these drills are conducted during lunch periods.
The goal of the drill is to teach students what needs to happen in these rare situations. Yet, ALICE drills are rarely conducted during lunch periods, so a question of preparation arises. The news of the Apalachee school shooting in Georgia has raised concern about school safety and increased motivation to practice these drills.
“We work with the Aurora Police Department and also the police department,” Principal Dan Debruycker said. “So it does depend on the APD and it has to be done by October 1. Other years we have organized it in different periods and we plan on doing that again.”
As of now, students have not been put in a position of being in a lunchroom during one of these situations. Therefore, in the case of an emergency, staff are trained to keep the situation under control and move the students to designated safe areas like the gym.
Just like any safety drill, the administration has been trained on how to handle any drill. Specifically, the ALICE drill requires staff to read handbooks, watch videos, and conduct additional research to help broaden their knowledge if one were to occur. Dean’s assistant Calvin McGaughy further emphasizes how Metea has prepared their staff.
“We have a lot of things like packets and booklets to make sure we know what we are doing,” McGaughy said.
This past week Metea ran a practice drill for students to be reminded of how an ALICE is properly performed. Students learned practical techniques on how to barricade a room, and where to evacuate to remain as safe as possible. This situation may never occur at Metea, but having students understand the importance of these drills is extremely important because these practices can be used when out in public as well.
To receive further information on ALICE drills, check out alicetraining.com or School Resource Officer, Jay Leonardi at [email protected] for more help.
