ALICE in Action

On February 16, 2019 in Mendon, Massachusetts, a woman was visiting with her husband who is in the military. They went to dinner as a family at a local mall with their children when shots were fired. There was immediate chaos with large of quantities of people distancing themselves form the danger. The woman, [...]

A deadly knife attack broke out in an economics class on September 14, 2018 at Fitzgerald High School in Warren, Michigan. Instantly, a teacher sprang into action to control the situation. A student wielding a knife violently attacked another student. Unfortunately, the injuries the victim sustained were fatal. The economics teacher, who chased the [...]

At the High Springs Community School in High Springs, Florida on January 11, 2019, gunshots were heard by faculty. They were not sure where the shots were ringing from, so they acted fast. They had recently completed ALICE training and they knew what they needed to do. Hundreds of children and faculty, about 75% [...]

Restaurants are a happy place. People are eating and sharing their time with others. However, in a restaurant in Iowa in February of 2013, violence erupted. A knife wielding teenage girl was stopped by a bystander, who was an ALICE trained teacher, after she non-fatally stabbed one customer. Reports say, “The teacher asked to [...]

At North Scott Junior High on August 31, 2018, a heroic teacher was calm and collected when a seventh grader displayed a handgun during class. The situation was handled quickly, and the teacher was able to calmly counter and disarm the student. The rest of the Junior High locked down until the site was [...]

When a threat is presented, it is time to spring into action. Which is exactly what happened at an elementary school in Anchorage School District on October 3, 2018. A man was dropping off his girlfriend’s daughter at school when her biological father showed up. Once the girl was in school, the father figures [...]

See something, say something. A vigilant college student acted quickly when she read a threat against a school in an online chat room. Thankfully, the attack was stopped before it even happened. On April 14, 2013, Zoe Burch, a sophomore at Kent State University who had been ALICE trained, reported an online threat targeting [...]

Students were basking in the promise of summer vacation. Swimming, sports, camp, and days off school were ahead. They were getting on the bus to head home for the first day of summer vacation. A high school student was seen with what looked like a long gun on the bus. When the gun was [...]

Summer school is different from the traditional school day, but the safety measures are not. Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate are not sequential. However, at a school in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a parent took an Alert seriously and informed the staff that she saw an armed intruder on June 23, 2014. The school [...]

Constantly being on the lookout for suspicious activity is not only encouraged, but also effective. On June 8, 2018 at Manassas Park City Schools, bus drivers noticed two suspicious males on the elementary school grounds. The men were armed with rifles with scopes. The students were about to be released for the day. The [...]

On the morning of January 20, 2017 at West-Liberty Salem High School, Logan Cole left class to go to the bathroom. He could not imagine what would happen to him in there. Logan walked into the restroom and there stood a student with a shotgun. At this time, the student began his [...]

On November 14, 2017, a man went on a shooting rampage in Rancho Tehama, California. He was targeting public places and random people, set out to kill as many as possible. He approached the local elementary school where the children were outdoors. The students and staff acted before anything fatal could happen. When the [...]

On September 21, 2017 during lunch at Mattoon High School, a student opened fire in the cafeteria. Two students were wounded non-fatally when a gym teacher, Angela McQueen, intervened and quickly subdued the attacker. The School Resource Officer was able to quickly assist in controlling the attacker and the weapon. While this was going [...]

An ALICE trained teacher was shopping at Springfield Mall in Springfield, Pennsylvania on October 20, 2018 with two of her sons when shots were fired. She recalled her ALICE Training and evacuated immediately with her children while informing others. She was able to stay calm and act fast and was unharmed in this situation. [...]

April 25, 2018 started out like any other day at Forest High School in Ocala, Florida until a student with a weapon shot through a classroom door and wounded another student by hitting him in the ankle. The school responded using ALICE proactive strategies. Staff and students quickly used inform, enhanced lockdown and barricading, [...]

Walking across the stage at high school graduation is a moment students’ picture from the time they enter the doors on the first day of their freshman year. It is a day of accomplishment, success and promise. The future is bright for the graduates and so are the smiles of the proud grads and [...]

Science class is a time to dissect, swab, track data, and most importantly, learn. It can be a class for the intellectually curious to further expand their knowledge and conduct experiments to do so. For many, science can be an escape. Not a class you should have to escape from. During science class at [...]

On October 27, 2017, a former student of Evansville asked to meet with the Assistant Principal. When they were alone in his office, he noticed the former student acting strange with her hands in her pockets. The Assistant Principal was then informed that she had been having homicidal thoughts and it was not safe [...]

Universities are a place where students are working hard to earn their degree. The promise for a better life all lies in their hard work and studies. Students should focus on school work, not worry about gunshots. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. On April 2, 2014 at Kent State University, a student [...]