Active shooter simulations include students in training

Abby Blazevic, Co-Editor-in-Chief

  ALICE training has now taken the next step to make sure that students feel safe in the classroom. Police officers have been traveling to different schools to run active shooter simulations.
According to the ALICE program website, “Preventing and protecting your organization from an active shooter event is your best defense against violence. ALICE’s team of ASIS-Certified Risk Assessors can evaluate your physical, technological, and human-based security programs to quickly determine areas of improvement – helping you better prepare.”
The simulations consist of police officers being stationed in a district 202 school and being tasked with finding and capturing the  staged intruder.
Several NHS students were offered the opportunity to volunteer to help run the simulations.
“We were victims that sat in the classroom and when the fake shooter came in, the police tried to find and take down the shooter and had to make sure we were all safe,”   Tiara Guider, senior, said.
The simulations include training police for hurt children in a classroom. During the simulation, some students may be told that they have been shot to help officers understand what to do with an injured student .
“They told me I had been shot in the leg, and they put me in a chair with wheels and they pushed me down the hallway to the officers on the other end,” Andrea Villicana, senior, said.
The simulations provide experience for the police and the students as the students must also learn how to protect themselves.
“History has shown there is no single response that fits all active shooter situations,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Lane Abrell wrote to District 202 families in a letter issued on Feb. 26. “Therefore, making sure everyone knows his or her options for an emergency response is important.”
While doing these simulations, students apprecieate  an inside view of how police officers need to train in order to be prepared.
“I like seeing what it takes to train officers for certain situations like a shooting becuase we don’t know what they are doing when we run drills like that,” Abigail Gigler, senior, said.