In the past few years, Lovett has begun a new approach to active shooter response training. “There's not a switch that changed our perception here…” Chief Operating Officer Gray Kelly assured me. “A lot of schools are evolving their response and Lovett is evolving their response too.”
I spoke to Anthony Biello, the Director of Campus Safety and Security. He explained how our security here at Lovett is far more advanced than in other schools. Lovett utilizes up-to-date technology like a camera system that is being scanned daily, visitor passes that fade to white eight hours after being printed, and a simple magnet that allows doors to classrooms to stay locked at all times, so when needed, the teachers can easily lock their classrooms.
Chuck Melito, Assistant Head of Upper School for Operations, affirmed the national movement to update safety procedures. “Training around the country has changed,” Mr. Melito said. “Everybody thought that going into a room and locking in there is the safest way to go.”
Mr. Melito explained how ALICE implements strategies such as always being on the move.
According to Mr. Kelly, ALICE training is an “options-based training that gives teachers and other people other options to respond to activity besides locking the door and staying still.” Mr. Melito explained that ALICE training teaches people about “relying on yourself, not others.”
ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate. On the ALICE website, the training acronym and response protocol is explained. Alert is your first notification of danger. Next Lockdown; barricade the room, and prepare for the next steps if needed. Communicate the intruder’s location and direction in real-time. Next is Counter; create noise, movement, distance, and distraction. Lastly, Evacuate when it is safe to do so.
When I met with Mr. Biello in his office, he gave me a firsthand lesson in the “counter” part of ALICE. He had me aim a laser pointer in the shape of a gun at a target and “shoot” it. I easily hit the target, a silhouette of a man, right in the chest. Then he told me to do it again, but this time, as I was about to “shoot” the target again, he hit me with a pool noodle. I missed the target by a long shot, for I was distracted by the sudden strikes of the noodle.
I spoke to teacher Mrs. Konigsmark who, like most teachers at Lovett, did the online ALICE training. “The training was helpful… not traumatic,” Mrs. Konigsmark told me. She explained how the training teaches “adjusting to be nimble.”
ALICE training is relatively new at Lovett. This new approach started long before COVID, but the pandemic slowed it down. “The faculty has scratched the tip of the iceberg,” Mr. Melito told me, referencing their training. “It's been mostly verbal.”
Right now, Lovett faculty and staff are at the point of training where they know the vocabulary when talking about these kinds of situations.
There has been online and in-person training. About 80 faculty members have done in-person training, and the rest have done online courses. “[We are] equipping your faculty and the staff around you with more information and tools,” Mr. Kelly told me.
Mr. Biello introduced ALICE to Lovett and is working daily on ways to make our campus as safe as can be. He explained to me that the in-person training was 2 days with 16 hours of training. “[The training] took you from the bare basics [with] absolutely no security to how to respond to different threat levels,” he explained.
Most, if not all, students do not know of ALICE. Mr. Kelly wants students to be aware that it will happen “organically” and over time. “Everybody needs to be oriented first… it's not going to be an immediate change from [a] student or faculty perspective,” Mr. Kelly explained. “It will take years.” Mr. Biello noted that it will be at least two more years until all training has been completed across the Lovett community.
As for the students, the best they can do is listen to their teachers, take drills seriously, and be ready to adjust their habits for newer and more effective safety strategies.
Original source can be found here.
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