South Montgomery Community School- Crawfordsville, IN

Southmont School Resource Officer (SRO) Jennifer Griffith and North Montgomery SRO Brett Dale are in the process of training everyone in both districts on how to be safe in an intruder or active shooter situation. Southmont teachers are being trained in several sessions this month while Dale said North teachers had their training in October. Both officers plan to train students of all ages at a level that they can cope with and understand in the coming months. While Griffith said an intruder situation is not likely or expected it is important to prepare. Griffith said active shooter and intruder training is just one thing that Southmont and all county schools train for, there are also plans in place for all disasters. However, active shooters are increasingly a worry for schools. “We can’t just hide our heads and hope that it doesn’t happen,” Griffith said. “If it does happen I can definitely say we will be prepared.” Griffith and the sheriff’s department have studied intruder and shooter situations around the country and Griffith and the department believes that ALICE training is the best way to go. She said ALICE—Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate—is a set of advice to follow rather than a list to check off. ALICE gives teachers and staff a choice for survival. “ALICE empowers the staff. Instead of training somebody just to lock the door, turn off the lights close the blinds and get down, it gives them more options,” Griffith said. “You know, if there is an intruder in the office the rest of the school can get out instead of locking down and waiting for the suspect to get to your area.” Read more