Schools throughout the nation train their faculties in proper lockdown protocol in case of an active shooter situation, but according to Ohio University police officer Brandon King, this isn’t enough anymore.
The Ohio University Police Department provided an ALiCE training session Thursday night in Bentley Hall 306 at 7 p.m. About 10 students attended the program, which was led by King.
ALiCE stands for Alert Lockdown Inform Counter Escape. It is an active shooter response program that police departments hope will “spread like wildfire all over the United States and become as common knowledge as ‘stop, drop, and roll,’ ” King said.
Officer King began Thursday’s training session by playing a YouTube video of an active-shooting simulation presented by OUPD in Grover Center, which demonstrated different tactics students could take in such a situation.
One of the tactics was to evacuate.
“In an evacuation, you need to run as far as possible in a zigzag pattern if you can,” King said. “Call 911. Break out the windows if you need to. Jump out or lower yourself down with articles of clothing.”
“If a lockdown is necessary, secure the door,” King said. “Barricade yourselves in by setting tables upright and using chairs. Prevent the door from being opened by using a belt. Move from the door, silence your phones, and cover the windows.”
In a confrontation with the shooter, King said that the best strategy is to get a weapon and counteract the attacker.
King said the importance of isolating the weapon is that police officers are trained to shoot any person they see holding a gun in an active shooter situation.
“I mean, we have 20,000 people on this campus,” said Adam Brown, a junior. “I can envision a situation like this happening here. People always think, ‘Well, it can’t happen here,’ but if they carry around the mentality of, ‘It could happen,’ that just makes them paranoid.”
The students in attendance at the training session were shown how to “swarm” a shooter and render him or her defenseless.
The last situation of a gun on Ohio University’s campus was in 2005, when a student kidnapped his roommate and was later apprehended at Alden Library. He was found to be in possession of firearms.
“Screw the lockdown protocol. The main goal of ALiCE is just to do anything; do something,” King said. “The worst thing you can do is nothing. And if you don’t think you’re powerful, you’re lying to yourself.”
br749112@ohiou.edu
@broro117
