By: Jenna Beresheim News Editor
A.L.I.C.E (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate) training sessions are currently being offered on Western Oregon Campus in rebuttal to recent school shootings across the United States.
Several trainings have already been offered on campus this year, and a few occurred as early as Sept. 23. After the Umpqua Community College shooting, multiple trainings were initiated in response.
The reason: traditional lockdown drills in active killer situations have been proven ineffective and outdated.
A.L.I.C.E training focuses on preparing individuals to overcome the indecision in events of extreme danger on campus to increase survivability in these situations.
During the Oct. 20 training, Trever Jackson, a Campus Public Safety officer, began by noting that “I’m going to use ‘active killer’ during this session rather than ‘active shooter,’ because it’s not always a gun you’re defending against.”
The class focused on debunking the myth of what we have been taught in schools: to get down, hide, and be quiet. These methods cause more fatalities than they prevent, and the United States is responding accordingly with revamped measures of preparation.
“We need to train ourselves to know what to do,” Jackson stated.
Lockdowns originated in the 1970s in Los Angeles in areas of high gang warfare.
With gangs shooting outside, children were taught to move away from windows and lie low until it subsided or help arrived. Then the guns began to move into schools, but the tactics remained unchanged.
“The police are getting there as fast as they can, but people are still getting killed,” Jackson informed in relation to response times. The average response time being a total of eight to twelve minutes, from the original 911 call to dispatch, and finally response.
A.L.I.C.E training is re-learning what to do in these situations, whether it be securing the room with barricades to evacuating, to even countering against an armed attacker.
Over forty individuals showed up to the event hosted, with a fair mixture of both students and staff. Jackson expressed that he wished more students would attend, as the more knowledgeable people there are in one classroom, the higher the odds of surviving an attack.
“It was an excellent training. I wish more people were encouraged to attend,” noted Dr. Thomas Rand, a professor of English, writing, and linguistics.
At least ten more trainings are currently being scheduled, and Campus Public Safety plans to send out an email with upcoming trainings available soon.
For those interested, a trigger warning has been put in place as there are frank discussions about what to do in armed attacker situations and threats to personal safety.
“The school environment naturally puts people into a ‘do what we’re told’ mentality, and we need to break out of that mindset,” Rand reminded, “I’d feel better if all my students had this training.”
