At Sterling Public Schools, the safety and security of our students and staff is of the utmost importance. As a result, we are continuously reviewing safety research and best practices to ensure our district’s policies and practices are current. In the unlikely event a dangerous person would come onto our school grounds, The U.S. Dept. of Education, the International Assoc. of Police Chiefs, FEMA and the FBI all recommend having active safety plans that include decision making options. To meet this recommendation, our district has adopted a nationally recognized safety program called A.L.I.C.E. As you can tell, ALICE is an acronym.
A.L.I.C.E. stands for:
A Alert: Immediately inform others of the dangerous intruder (use clear, concise language to convey information about the intruder & location).
L Lockdown: Use enhanced lockdown & barricade measures (if it is not safe to evacuate).
I Inform: Communicate as much information as possible (so clear decisions can be made).
C Counter: Apply learned skills to distract and confuse the intruder instead of being passive.
E Evacuate: As soon as it is safe to do so, evacuate the building.
The significance of ALICE is that, in an unfortunate situation such as a dangerous individual is on school property, it teaches and empowers students and staff to make informed decisions by providing them a proactive set of responses.
We are proud to have trained our staff in ALICE this past school year, but now we need to go to the next step and train our students. Illinois P.A. 100-996: The School Safety Drill Act now requires student involvement. Sterling Public Schools will take the principles and tactics taught in the ALICE training and present them to our students. Please know, this information will be presented to students in an age and developmentally appropriate, non-fearful, and empowering manner. Then, once the training is completed, our hope is to provide opportunities for students to talk about their feelings and reactions. Afterwards, your child may have questions when he or she gets home. We understand this, and want to work together to deal with these potential emotions. Therefore, in the spirit of cooperation, we want to help answer any questions parents or students may have in advance of the student ALICE training taking place the first week in September. If you have questions, please direct them to Dr. Sara Dail, Assistant Superintendent, at 815-626-5050 or sdail@sps5.org.