Rockbridge County Public Schools has implemented a new active shooter training program known as ALICE Training. ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate, and is the number one active shooter civilian response safety training program in the nation.
“The ALICE Training is best described as a defensive program designed to teach students, teachers, and other people who aren’t law enforcement how to avoid and defend against intruders,” said school resource officer Hugh Ferguson.
The main purpose of instituting the ALICE program is to help members of the RCHS school system become more aware of ways to avoid dangerous situations at school.
“There are several different portions to it, but basically, it’s trying to give people more options to avoid active shooters, rather than hide or run away,” said Ferguson.
Ferguson, along with a few other administrators, received training over the summer on how ALICE works and how to teach it to others.
“We went to training in Asheville, N.C.,” said Ferguson. “We really got in depth into how it worked.”
Over the course of the year, Ferguson will teach the program to the school system, starting with administrators who did not go to the conference and ending with the students.
“We’re going to have to teach it in segments,” said Ferguson. “It’s going to take most of the school year, but I think it will work.”
Ferguson hopes that the training program will benefit those it is taught to, and maybe even people beyond them.
“I really hope that we’ll be able to teach everyone how to be more safe,” said Ferguson. “We’re trying to give everyone something that they can do to protect themselves and others in a dangerous situation and even tell others how to be as safe as possible.”