West Aurora School District- Aurora, IL
West Aurora schools may move to a new plan to deal with emergencies like an armed person on campus. “We have heard of tragic events when many times students and staff are left to fend for themselves until emergency personnel arrive on the scene,” West Aurora School District Superintendent Jeffrey Craig told the School Board recently. Two faculty members recently received training in the ALICE program. ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate. The program offers guidelines to save lives if an armed person enters a school. “This is a transitioning philosophy that we would like to adopt in addition to our lockdown procedures as situations warrant,” the superintendent said. Marti Neahring, West Aurora director of student services, and Tony Martinez, director of community affairs for the district, underwent two days of training in the program last month. Neahring said they were looking at the program as a way to “empower” people to survive an act of violence on a school campus. Read more
