Carlisle, PA
But as the issue of school safety stemming from school shootings continues, some lawmakers and schools are looking at offensive measures to help protect students. After the Columbine shooting, former law enforcement officer Greg Crane co-founded the ALICE Training with his wife, an elementary school principal. The two designed a training regimen for schools across the country that would allow staff to take action if confronted with an intruder. Though a number of states allow teachers to carry guns on school property, Crane said he has not included weapons in the training program and does not believe they are a good idea. “It’s actually not at all the same for people using weapons for self-defense as it is to use it (offensively),” Crane said. “(Arming teachers) is asking too much of teachers to be … the security force. If there’s a shooting in the cafeteria, what are the teachers supposed to do? Are they supposed to leave their students alone to respond?” Since its founding after Columbine, the ALICE Training has trained teachers in 49 states and reached students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Crane said they are branching out to training staff in the private sector of education. Crane said the training itself is not so much physical as it is retraining the policies with which the schools follow in intruder incidents. Read more
