Campus Police offers students ALICE training

By Kyla Smulski  

Stonehill police officer Andrew Shaw still remembers the school shooting at Columbine High School, where 13 people were killed by two student gunmen in the first school shooting to gain national attention in 1999.   

“I vividly remember Columbine, this rocked the world. It never happened before. It was the worst mass shooting in history at that point,” he said.  

Shaw and others in the Stonehill police department want to make sure it never happens on this campus and in the unlikely event it does, that everyone is prepared and stays safe. 

To do that, members of the department hosted what is called ALICE training- alert, lockdown, inform, counter, and evacuate- on Thursday, October 9, on campus at Merkert-Tracy Hall from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. ALICE is a proactive training course on what to do in an active school shooter situation.  

“In a traditional lockdown pre-ALICE, people would just shut the door, hide under desks, turn off the lights, and be quiet,” Shaw, who led the training at the college said. “That makes you a very easy target; these people come in with a plan. They won’t be deterred because the door is closed. There is no protection; you are stuck there; you are just a sitting duck. Now we are giving you guys options, we are empowering you guys to make your own choices to get out of a violent incident.”  

ALICE was once mandatory for first-year students during the first-year experience course, but it is offered multiple times a year to everyone.  

“We realize how important and crucial this class is for the whole Stonehill community. We are trying to jumpstart it and get more people here. We try to make it as realistic as we can just in case something like that happens; you guys need to know what to do. I am very passionate about this program because it works number one, and number two, I have kids, I have grandkids. It is so important to learn,” said Sgt. David Washington, Sr.  

Emails are sent out with dates and times, and flyers posted around campus to encourage participation.  

Students and faculty can email the Stonehill campus police, alice-training@stonehill.edu, or any of the Stonehill police officers, and ALICE instructors will work with you to set up a class.  

Sgt. David Washington, Sgt. Paul Parlon, Officer Andrew Shaw, and Officer John DeGiacomo, who taught the class recently, are all certified ALICE instructors. In the interactive and realistic simulation; the instructors begin by showing students the fake weapons used in the course to ensure students' comfort. This includes a fake knife, a starter pistol (to simulate smell and sound), and a Nerf gun (to simulate bullets). There are no active firearms in the room. Participants are given safety glasses, and a first aid kit is in the room in case of an emergency. A separate room is available for anyone who needs to step away from the program.  

Instructors discuss multiple school shootings and why the police and student response has shifted away from the traditional lockdown over time.  

The training consists of three interactive scenarios. The first is the traditional lockdown, which showcases problems with this tactic. In this scenario, the starter pistol was fired, beginning the simulation. Students turned off the lights and hid in the back of the room. The shooter entered the room and ultimately “shot” seven out of the 10 participants.  

“The problem with traditional lockdown is that the aggressor is in control, you guys gave up all your control, and you guys became easy targets. They are just going after easy prey. If you can distract them and get their attention over there, it's a lot harder for them,” Shaw said.  

Participants said the response practiced in this scenario made them feel scared and exposed. They said they had to ignore their instincts and felt useless sitting there instead of being proactive.  

The second scenario is an enhanced lockdown consisting of five elements: secure the door, barricade the door, spread out, prepare to evacuate or counter, and communicate. 

In this simulation, the starter pistol was fired, and participants immediately sprang into action. They secured the door with wires to prevent it from opening, barricaded the door with chairs, tables, anything that was around, turned off the lights, covered the window, and spread out. In this scenario, there were no deaths, compared to the first scenario, which ultimately proved the effectiveness of ALICE.  

“The purpose of the barricade is yes, to keep the shooter out, but it's also to buy us time to get there. So however you can barricade that door, lock that door, that is what you are trying to do. You are trying to buy time for the police to get there, remember that,” said Washington. “These active shooters have in their mind what they have to do; they know the police are going to come. They are going to try to kill as many people as possible and do everything as fast as they can. If something is going to give them a problem, they are not going to waste their time on it. That's why it's so important to have a good barricade,” he said.   

Parlon who acted as the aggressor in this simulation, echoed Washington’s statement.  

“I was trying to get in, I couldn't get in the door at first; eventually it loosened up a little. But I am going for the number of bodies, if it's not easy I am going to the next one, then the next one, then the next one.” Parlon said. 

In a real active shooter situation, people should then prepare to evacuate if possible, or counter. Countering is not fighting; it is interfering with the aggressor's attention to prevent them from shooting, focusing on something else instead. You should arm yourself with whatever is available, water bottles, chairs, anything you can get your hands on, and be prepared to throw it at the shooter, the officers said.  

“It doesn't have to hurt them. It just has to distract them, if a number of people are doing that they have to keep trying to reset,” said Shaw.   

Officer Washington Detailed how students should go about overwhelming an attacker.  

“If you are close, someone gets the left arm, someone gets the right arm. Say we have five students, one leg, one leg, the last person gets the waist, and you bring them to the ground. You stay on them, period. You wait, don't let them up. The person around the waist tries to grab the gun and then put it in the trash can,” Washington said.   

In addition, people should communicate with law enforcement during this time.

“The information is so vital to us that are responding, keep it simple when you are informing and communicating. Big gun, small gun, if you say that we know what you are talking about, you don't need to be specific,” Washington said.  

His fellow officer agreed.  

“Same thing with describing the shooter, just get the basics down, skinny white guy with a small gun. If we get a call saying there is a tall white guy with a gun, we can rule out the small female running by us; she's probably not the shooter,” said Shaw.  

In the final scenario, participants put everything they learned together, using all tactics from the second scenario in addition to throwing balls, which simulated objects like a water bottle, at the shooter. The ALICE training proved to be effective; only one participant was “shot” non-fatally in the leg, and the shooter could not fully enter the classroom, officers noted. 

Instructors also stressed the importance of students and faculty signing up for Hill Alert and not trusting unvetted posts on social media. If there is ever an active shooter situation on campus, that is the most effective and reliable method of alerting people. Hill Alert will inform you of the location of the incident and if you should evacuate. Officers said evacuating on foot is crucial because the roads must stay open for easy and swift access by campus police and ambulances.

The officers also urged people to be proactive.  

“Overcoming denial is important, if you hear something that sounds like gunshots, or a bang, don't be in denial. If something doesn't sound right, doesn't feel right, overcome that and call us. It will take longer if you directly call 911, 5555 goes straight to our dispatch,” said Washington.