Staff On Defense

Staff+On+Defense

In the first 21 weeks of this year there has been a total of 23 school shootings that ended with at least one injury.
School shootings are unpredictable and can occur at any time. Students  look towards their teachers for not only a source of education but also a source of protection in the hours they attend school. However both students and staff  are not mentally prepared in a situation revolving around a school shooting. Over the recent years schools have been adopting school shooting drills for both students and staff. One of the drills is known as ALICE.
ALICE is Aka ; Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate. This training runs staff members through videos and instructions on how to be proactive during a school shooting. This programs also explains methods of how to lock down classrooms, barricade rooms and how to be placed in a closed vicinity. This also teaches methods on how to identify the sounds of gunshots, since not everyone is aware of what a gunshot sounds like.
Heritage High school will also be adopting staff training for active shooting. Heritage is an open campus, along with being secluded on a hill next to a middle school. Officer Mitch will be in charge of training staff members and will have a meeting this month  regarding the training. A physical training simulation will be taking  place for staff members in January.
“The training is probably good, like I said with situational stuff. Probably good for them to have that training so they are prepared in certain situations,” states Prince Harris II (12).
Some students are on board with the idea of staff members receiving training. Students have also noticed how open the campus is and are glad that staff members are using this to their advantage.
“I think Heritage is a very open campus and it’s very big with a lot of walk entrances, I mean we have gates but like its not that safe persae and plus the area we are around is kind of secluded,” says Gerricka Dacpano (12).
Schools are unprepared and continuously use traditional active shooting drills that leave both staff members and students more vulnerable. The traditional way of huddling in a corner and turning out the lights may have been helpful in the past however the perpetrator will most likely be familiar with this traditional tactic. Schools should adopt ALICE as a training course for not only it’s methods in protecting the students and staff but also helping staff members to become more mentally prepared in those situations. To hopefully in the future to prevent more casualties.