Avondale Schools community gets continuous ALICE training

Officer Brian Miller of the Auburn Hills Police Department presented an A.L.I.C.E. refresher session to students at Woodland Elementary.

At the start of the 2016-2017 school year, Avondale School District Resource Officer, Brian Miller, of the Auburn Hills Police Department approached school district leaders with a new concept in school responses to active shooter incidents called A.L.I.C.E. Developed following the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012, A.L.I.C.E. (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) was a departure from what most schools did during an active shooter incident and had not yet made much of a footprint among Michigan schools. After attending numerous trainings on the new response, Miller believed that A.L.I.C.E. should be added to schools’ emergency protocols and that lockdown-only procedures should be abandoned. He shared his belief with school leaders and Avondale School District committed time and resources to ensure that every staff member and student was A.L.I.C.E. trained. Miller also urged officials to commit to continuous training in subsequent years.

“Officer Miller provided us with the data to support that there were weaknesses in the lockdown-only procedures we had been practicing,” said Avondale School District Superintendent, Dr. James Schwarz. “He suggested we engage our entire learning community - including staff, students, and parents in A.L.I.C.E. training.” Schwarz said that Miller also made the argument that the District would need to be vigilant about continuing the trainings every year.

The five components of A.L.I.C.E. include Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate. During that first year, Miller presented age-appropriate materials to all students from elementary through high school. He also presented to each school building’s staff and presented to parents during informational meetings.

“The presentations and trainings were very in-depth,” explained Schwarz, “Officer Miller spoke candidly with each different audience. He wanted to make sure that everyone understood the gravity of the active shooter situation and he wanted to make sure everyone knew what to do during such an event.”

Miller’s presentations to staff and parents included grave details and statistics of school shooting occurrences around the country over the past two decades. He outlined how many of the incidents could have had a different outcome if the victims had taken additional measures beyond the lockdown-only procedures that were the norm for the time. He also provided tangible instructions for employment of the A.L.I.C.E. components. For the older students he included much of the same information with the same sobering details. His presentations to middle and elementary students were softened but still focused on realities and safety.

This school year, Officer Miller provided a series of refresher training sessions for staff and parents and for the students in elementary school through high school. His presentations took on a somber tone in February when tragedy struck the Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida. “The shooting tragedy in Florida underscores the reality of having to provide active shooter safety training for children,” said Schwarz, “it isn’t something we want the students thinking about but we have to help our children prepare for such an event.”