West Holmes Elementary performs ALICE lock-down and evacuation drill
The alarm had gone out.
There was a problem at the north end of Millersburg Elementary on Monday, Sept. 23. With all teachers on high alert following the announcement by principal Tim Wigton, teachers jumped into action, either evacuating their students from the premises if they were not close to the intruder, or locking down their rooms and becoming silent.
On the opposite side of the school, second grade teacher Ann Mast did what she has been taught to do, herding her children to the nearest exit. She shoved the door hard. It wouldn't budge. She shoved again. Nothing.
"Come on, come on," said Mast to the door, urging it to open.
It didn't, so she did the next best thing, which was getting her students out through the closest available exit. They made it to safety.
"I am sweating," said Mast afterwards. "That was pretty realistic."
Fortunately for all involved, this was only a drill, conducted by the West Holmes School District in collaboration with the Holmes County Sheriff's Office, Millersburg Police Department and Fire District #1, in an effort to prepare for such kinds of emergencies which have become far too common in today's society.
For her part, Mast was commended by Millersburg Police Chief Tom Vaughn for thinking on her feet in that scenario.
And much like the rest of the school district buildings which went through the identical drill, the staffs and students responded well to what they have been taught to do.
West Holmes schools have been practicing the lock-down and evacuation program known as ALICE as they continue to perfect how they want to approach intruder situations.
"ALICE is Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate, which helps staff and kids out with violent intruders, whether that would some type of shooter or any unwanted person," said Sergeant Tim Stryker of the Holmes County Sheriff's Office. "We practice lock-down drills as well as evacuating."
The school district is now in the infant stages of training for the ALICE program, and as of their visit to Millersburg, they have been to all of the elementary schools and would soon have both the middle school and high school done as well.
While it is just a drill and can never take the place of the intensity and danger of a true life experience, putting staff and students into a situation should help them better understand what is at stake should a real occurance take place.
"This is extremely important," said Chief Tom Vaughn of the Millersburg Police Department, eluding to schools becoming familiar with the new techniques being implemented in thwarting the plans of would-be attackers. "This is just like practicing a fire drill. When you are actually doing the live drill, you have to make choices. You are able to make better decisions if something does happen because you have been through the process."
That process has been a positive one thus far. Each school has exemplified quality decision-making by the staff, and the students have done a nice job of taking the drills seriously.
"It's going great," said Kris Pipes-Perone, West Holmes School District superintendent, on how the training sessions have gone to date. "We have a good plan in place, and teachers are able to make good decisions, and kids are obviously aware of what is happening (in these drills0. Good things are in place, but doing this makes it even better."
The testing phase of ALICE includes an initial simple lockdown, with no intruder. The various professionals involved then go throughout the school to make sure all of the safety codes are followed.
They then move into a lock-down with an intruder alarm in place, which sets in motion a series of decisions for the staff members who have children in the classrooms.
Staff members cleanly and quietly transported students to where they needed to be under the given circumstances, and did so very effectively, which was a recurring theme at each school.
"We've done well," said Pipes-Perone. "This is a process that is unfortunate that we must go through it, but it is necessary to be able to protect our students as well as we can. Through practice, we can only make it better as we understand where we need to improve and adjust what we are doing."
Following each of the building exercises, members of the various organizations involved gathered to discuss the positives of the event, as well as to hash out how they can improve techniques and gain more insight as to ways the district can best improve the odds that students have the best chance of escaping injury.
Whether that is fight or flight, Perone said gaining a better understanding of the process can only be a positive thing.