Rapid City Police and teachers have trained students at Central High School to approach active shooter situations in a new way.

By Nick Glass

Students at Central High School have recently been trained how to react to an active shooter situation. For the two weeks before Christmas break, students in their social study classes listened to power points and a seminar from Officer Pitts, learning if a situation like this was ever to occur the main options they have are to run or fight back. During the seminar Pitts said, “Students should do what they are comfortable with, but they need to do something. The worst thing that a student can do is freeze.”

Recent school shootings and random heinous attacks on innocent Americans have prompted the Rapid City School District to change their lockdown procedures. The old way of sitting and waiting for help to arrive has become a thing of the past, and the school district has adopted the new procedure called ALICE. ALICE stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate. ALICE is a more proactive way of dealing with an armed attacker. Sergeant Brian Blenner of Rapid City Police Department told the Rapid City Journal, “We’re not teaching them to fight.We’re teaching them to evacuate, or if someone is in the room, to counter that action.”

According to the ALICE training website, more than 4,200 schools have adopted the new lockdown procedure. ALICE is sweeping the nation and it is not only schools that have adopted it, more than 3,055 business have made ALICE their go-to response to a crisis, particularly because ALICE gives victims options. FBI.gov says, “No place is immune to active shooter incidents. It is important to give citizens and students knowledge of options that can be applied in any circumstance.” Senior Ryder Gary, who went through the seminar, said, “I’m glad that the school district has changed the lock down policy.” He said, “We used to be sitting ducks and now we have the option to run and fight back. I think this will help save lives.”