School officials back enhanced safety protocols

Many of the School Committee members and approximately 20 parents who attended a recent presentation by the Police Department on enhanced safety protocols came away impressed, but they would like the department to drop the use of the ALICE acronym, which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate.

Committee member Robert Golledge said the acronym “bears distraction and takes away from the added improvements of enhanced safety options and evacuation.”

“You are on the right track, though,” said Golledge, directing his comments to Police Chief Ken Berkowitz and CHS School Resource Officer Chip Yeaton, who led the 90-minute presentation at CHS on Tuesday night.

Created by former teacher and SWAT officer Greg Crane of Burleson, Texas, ALICE is an “active resistance model” that utilizes environmental design, technology, communication, and human action to improve one’s survival chances when faced with an immediate danger.

Both the chief and Yeaton said that while they like the ALICE program, they also like other programs and can easily adopt the best features of all programs to enhance school security.

“ALICE is one of many programs out there and there are others out there,” said Yeaton. “We don’t want to get hung up on terminology. You can call it the ‘Chip’ program if you like.”

Regardless of its final name, Yeaton has been working for months to overhaul the current protocol, which consists of an alert and lockdown only and is used in school systems across the country. For the past several years, students and staff have been instructed to lock their classroom doors, turn off the lights, and hide in a far corner of the room while remaining calm and quiet.

A program like ALICE, on the other hand, teaches a variety of survival methods, or “response options,” that are designed to help mitigate casualty rates in the event of a real-life attack.

Some of the more controversial strategies fall under the “counter” component of the program and are to be used only as a last resort, such as when a shooter has breached a locked door and entered a classroom. The preferred option, according to ALICE advocates, is to run when it is safe to do so, and Yeaton has said that the new training will emphasize this method whenever possible.

The “inform” component, meanwhile, advises school administrators to monitor the attacker using surveillance cameras and to provide specific, real-time information about his or her location in the school using the building’s PA system. This has the effect of confusing or frustrating the intruder, while also providing valuable information to students and staff.

School Superintendent Jeff Granatino said teacher and staff training on safety protocols will continue and he will plan for a general information session for parents with the chief at a later date.

Granatino said what he has heard from the staff is that they like having options that enhance safety. “What we want is that the staff is trained appropriately and that options are given,” he said.

School officials also agreed that instruction should be age-appropriate, noting that what is taught to high school students should be different than what is presented to elementary students.

Some of the parents in attendance expressed concerns over the “counter” component in particular. Suzanne Hegland pointed to the recent tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, noting that some who rushed the intruder were gunned down. “Rushing an armed person is not optimal,” she said.

Chief Berkowitz disputed this assertion and said, “I never said it was optimal to rush a gunman, but what I am saying is we need to change the mindset. You don’t want to wait, do nothing, and hope for a rescue. The cavalry may not be coming.”

The other major new development that came out of Tuesday night’s meeting was the announcement by Berkowitz that he will be asking for more funding in next year’s town budget to add more officers to the School Resource Officer program. School Committee member Reuki Schutt said she, for one, would stand up at town meeting and support the chief on his budget request.

However, Berkowitz said adding more officers is not a cure-all for safety protocols, although he said the success that Yeaton has had at the high school should be duplicated in the other schools throughout the district.

As for the new safety measures, School Committee Chairman John Bonnanzio said the committee is satisfied with the Police Department’s efforts and said the committee will not be taking a vote or making a policy decision on this matter. He said the committee may want updates from the superintendent on the progress of the training sessions.

Tuesday night’s presentation was taped and aired by WGBH Public Television.

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Posted by Mike Berger on Jan 10 2013. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.