Photo: Guidance counselor Terri Rein runs down a hallway during the ALICE drill on Aug. 31. Rein was making sure the classrooms in that hallway were empty.
Heidi Novak hid in a first-floor bathroom with her friend Sally Manalo.
Dwight Colvin was in the hallway by the main office and momentarily paused before running out a door and making it outside to safety.
Joey Acton and Paige De May were in the weight room and made the decision to run out the closest outside door into the teacher parking lot.
Technology Director David Barber barricaded himself in the technology room where he could watch the situation unfold on the school’s multiple security cameras and alert people on the intercom to where the intruder was in the building.
Guidance counselor Terri Rein ran down a hallway checking rooms to make sure people had gotten out of the building.
Lori Hoveln grabbed her binder that included all the student’s names and contact information.
She would be tasked with calling parents if their child didn’t make it to the evacuation point.
On August 31, St. Joseph-Ogden High School held a building-wide ALICE drill to prepare students for an active shooter situation.
A Champaign County Sheriff’s Deputy acted as an “active shooter” and made his way through the building.
District administrators thought having a non-teacher play the role of the shooter would make the situation more real for students.
Students responded positively to the drill.
“My friend Sally and I walked in right as it started,” said Novak.
Novak said she heard a loud banging noise coming from the English hallway. The two girls looked at each other and then ran into a bathroom. They locked themselves in the stalls after turning off all the lights.
“If anyone came in and we were quiet they wouldn’t know we were in there,” Novak said
The drill is part of the yearly ALICE training the district does to help students deal with an active shooter situation.
ALICE stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate.
When a shooter enters a building the goal is to alert the building to the fact that the district is under attack. This can be done via text message, instant messenger, intercom or other means. Lockdown is when students and staff find a secure place to hide until help arrives. Inform means giving constant, real-time information throughout the building using all available technology to inform people where the threat is currently located. Countering can be as simple as creating a distraction to give yourself more time to escape. Evacuate means getting out of the building and to a safe location.
The training was run by School Resource Officer Alicia Maxey.
After the students evacuated the building and reconvened at Living Word Family Church, Maxey gave students a presentation similar to the one she gave teachers in the middle of August.
Maxey told students that the number of school shootings is increasing.
“It’s not getting better out there,” she said. “There is an active shooter situation in a school almost weekly. That’s why we are doing what we are doing.”
Maxey stressed to the students that they and the school’s staff were the true first responders to a situation considering an active shooter situation usually only lasts 7 to 8 minutes.
“I am going to do everything I can to save you but you have to help me and buy me some time,” she told the students.
She urged students to take the initiative to call 911 if such an incident should occur as well as stressing to the student that there is no part of ALICE that they must do.
“We are trying to empower you,” she said.
Maxey also stressed that the techniques they were teaching students could also be used at a mall, a movie theater or a football game if they were in an active shooter situation in a public place.
Students were also taught the swarm technique which enables four people to grab an attacker by their extremities. The four people then drop their weight immobilizing the attacker. Teacher Ryan Searby volunteered to be the attacker. Four students had him subdued in seconds.
Novak took part in the swarm training. She said she feels the training they receive is valuable.
“If it were to really happen and we didn’t have this training I feel like we would be really shook up and not know what to do,” she said.
De May also took part in the swarm demonstration and said it made her feel empowered although, she had no doubt it would work.
“We are all strong girls,” De May said. “I was confident in knocking him down.”
De May said she thought the training was beneficial for the students.
“It is beneficial to know what our options are and what we are capable of doing,” she said.
Joey Acton was with De May in the weight room when the drill started.
‘It’s nerve wracking just to know that it could be a real life situation,” he said.
Acton said it good that ALICE empowers students.
“It gives you more freedom,” he said. “It makes us feel a little more comfortable. If you go out a certain part of the building and you have a family members house that is close you can go there and feel safe.”
SJO superintendent Brian Brooks said he thinks the training is invaluable for the students in the district and he was pleased to see the drill went as planned.
“I looked out the windows and people on the other end of the building were immediately out and gone,” he said. “That is great and that is exactly what should happen.”
This was the first year the district taught the students the swarm technique and Brooks said he thought it was good to give the students as much information as possible.
When he first went through ALICE training they showed how the swarm technique could work and Brooks said it was eye-opening.
“It showed everyone can play a role,” he said.
Brooks said he thinks the parents of the SJO district understand why the school does the ALICE training.
“The feedback we have gotten is that they are glad we are doing it and that we are trying to educate the kids,” he said. “No one likes to talk about it, it’s not a comfortable subject, but when you see what is going on across the country, you need to be prepared.”
