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The Post: Ohio University
ALiCE program trains
students how to react in active-shooter situation
By Brooke Robinson
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Schools throughout the nation train their faculties in proper lockdown
protocol in case of an active shooter situation, but according to Ohio
University police officer Brandon King, this isn’t enough anymore.
The Ohio University Police Department provided an ALiCE training
session Thursday night in Bentley Hall 306 at 7 p.m. About 10 students
attended the program, which was led by King.
ALiCE stands for Alert Lockdown Inform Counter Escape. It is an active
shooter response program that police departments hope will “spread like
wildfire all over the United States and become as common knowledge as
‘stop, drop, and roll,’ ” King said.
Officer King began Thursday’s training session by playing a YouTube
video of an active-shooting simulation presented by OUPD in Grover
Center, which demonstrated different tactics students could take in
such a situation.
One of the tactics was to evacuate.
“In an evacuation, you need to run as far as possible in a zigzag
pattern if you can,” King said. “Call 911. Break out the windows
if you need to. Jump out or lower yourself down with articles of
clothing.”
“If a lockdown is necessary, secure the door,” King said. “Barricade
yourselves in by setting tables upright and using chairs. Prevent the
door from being opened by using a belt. Move from the door, silence
your phones, and cover the windows.”
In a confrontation with the shooter, King said that the best strategy
is to get a weapon and counteract the attacker.
King said the importance of isolating the weapon is that police
officers are trained to shoot any person they see holding a gun in an
active shooter situation.
“I mean, we have 20,000 people on this campus,” said Adam Brown, a
junior. “I can envision a situation like this happening here. People
always think, ‘Well, it can’t happen here,’ but if they carry around
the mentality of, ‘It could happen,’ that just makes them paranoid.”
The students in attendance at the training session were shown how to
“swarm” a shooter and render him or her defenseless.
The last situation of a gun on Ohio University’s campus was in 2005,
when a student kidnapped his roommate and was later apprehended at
Alden Library. He was found to be in possession of firearms.
“Screw the lockdown protocol. The main goal of ALiCE is just to do
anything; do something,” King said. “The worst thing you can do is
nothing. And if you don’t think you’re powerful, you’re lying to
yourself.”
Brooke is a Versailles
High School graduate and Senior Scribes Scholarship recipient at Ohio
University. Read this and other articles from the Ohio University
student newspaper at The Post.
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