Jim Richards | |
After the 1999 Columbine school shooting, police officer Greg Crane asked his wife, a grade school principal, what her school did during an active shooter event.
She told him the teachers and students would turn out the lights and hide in their classrooms while waiting for law enforcement to arrive. He didn’t like her answer.
In response, Crane developed ALICE active shooter training, a framework that gave people options for helping themselves and others stay safe instead of the traditional "lockdown" approach.
Crane and his colleagues believed that the biggest shortfall of lockdown training was that it was a “single-option” response plan.
Regardless of what was happening, the response remained the same: lock the door, turn off the lights, stay low, stay quiet, and wait for help to arrive.
When the shooting began at Columbine, many students and school employees were in open areas including the school library and cafeteria. Even if they could have hidden and waited, the attack lasted almost an hour.
Since no two events are the same, there cannot be a one-size-fits-all response plan.
Taking inspiration from firefighter training that emphasized situational awareness, Crane developed the ALICE protocol: the first “multi-option” response plan for mass shootings.
Over the past two decades, ALICE has evolved to emphasize trauma-informed delivery, blended learning formats that combine eLearning with hands-on exercises, and closer collaboration with mental health professionals. Given the evolving nature of violence, the ALICE program hopes to ensure training efficacy and consistency through ongoing support for ALICE Certified Instructors.
What is ALICE Training?
The ALICE program is a nationally recognized training program for schools and universities, preparing staff and students to respond to an active shooter event.
The acronym stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate.
ALICE focuses on flexibility, decision making, and, as a last resort, actively fighting the threat.
The philosophy is“participate in your own survival while leading others to safety.”
This mission has appealed to many schools around the country, making it among the leading active shooter response training in the United States.
As of 2019, more than 5,500 K-12 schools and 900 universities had participated in ALICE training. Additionally, 5,100 law enforcement agencies have ALICE-trained personnel, with a total of 18,000 ALICE-certified instructors nationwide, according to its website.
Other training frameworks have also emerged since then, including the Standard Response Protocol and CRASE, Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events.
Learn more about ALICE alternatives here.
How Does ALICE Training Work?
The ALICE program relies on a “train-the-trainer” model.
The core of the program is the ALICE Certified Instructor (ACI) training. This is a two-day course during which a select group of school administrators, safety officers, and teachers learn to teach the ALICE protocol to others.
ACI training relies on blended instruction.
Participants learn foundational knowledge through online modules supplemented by in-person scenario-based drills. They must pass both an online post-test and an in-person “teach-back” to become certified.
Instructors can then train the rest of their staff to become ALICE Certified staff members.
A school or district can become an ALICE Certified Organization by meeting three criteria:
- 75% Participation: At least 75% of the staff must complete the ALICE e-learning course
- EOP Integration: The school’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) must be updated to include ALICE options-based strategies
- Annual Drills: The school must conduct and document at least one annual active shooter safety drill
Local law enforcement officers are also able to train school staff in their community and ALICE offers e-learning classes to supplement on-site training.
A Critical Window of Time
According to the National Sheriff’s Association, the average school shooting lasts 12.5 minutes.
The FBI found that roughly 70% of active shooter incidents last 5 minutes or less, with 60% ending before police arrive, according to its quick reference guide.
ALICE trains staff and students to band together against the shooter as a possible option while waiting for police. Some of these options include:
- Working together to barricade the door
- Making noise to break the intruder’s focus
- Throwing heavy objects at the shooter
- Running from the building if they have an escape route
ALICE stresses that Alert, Lock-down, Inform, Counter and Evacuate are not meant to be sequential, or a checklist to follow.
Each situation is unique, and those involved rarely have all of the information needed to make the best decisions. This framework gives people options to consider instead of blindly following a lock-down approach.
Training is Only the First Step to Protect Students and Staff From School Shootings
ALICE training equips students and staff with vital decision-making skills during an emergency, but it's just one piece of a comprehensive security strategy.
Physical security solutions tested to prevent both bullets and break-ins are the most underutilized resources in active shooter protection.
As more facilities have improved access control and become more vigilant about locking doors, it has become increasingly common for active shooters to enter buildings by breaking the glass near doors.
We now often see attackers shooting out standard window glass or non-ballistic security glazing, then stepping through the gap or reaching through to unlock a door. This was captured by security cameras in the opening moments of the 2023 Covenant School attack.
Even bullet-resistant glass can fail if it’s not properly framed. This is because window framing systems rely, in part, on the rigidity of the glass to keep the glass in place. When that rigidity is compromised, the shooter can peel the glazing from its frame, especially if the system hasn’t been tested against simulated forced entry after a ballistic attack.
Proven Protection To Delay Intruders
At TSS, we've worked with hundreds of schools over the past two decades to secure main entrances and classroom doors, upgrade standard windows with ballistic glass and framing, and create custom barriers for other vulnerable areas.
We've also developed new solutions to address evolving threats, including the growing threat of forced entry.
Our SchoolDefender® Glass is non-ballistic glazing tested to delay attackers and designed to fit existing frames for more cost-effective upgrades. It provides a critical physical barrier in areas where full ballistic protection isn’t necessary, but keeping intruders out is.
To learn more about how to evaluate your school’s needs and plan safety updates, download How to Assess and Bulletproof Your School.
If you have questions about the physical security layer of your school's safety strategy, or if you'd like to assess your building's current vulnerabilities, schedule a consultation with our team.
