Quakertown students receive ALICE counter training

Quakertown Community High School students have been receiving training on how to react in the event an active shooter enters the high school. The students signed up for ongoing lessons given by School Resource Officer Bob Lee and social studies teacher Sean Burke, a former sergeant in the Marine Corps Infantry with deployments to the Middle East and Africa. The district adopted ALICE training three years ago, in the summer of 2018.

ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. The ALICE philosophy is to use technology and information in a way that staff and students can make informed decisions in a crisis, remove as many people as possible from the danger zone, and provide realistic training so those involved in a crisis have a better chance of surviving. Both Lee and Burke talk to students about different strategies to protect themselves and their classmates should an armed threat enter the school. “There’s a lot of thinking outside the box,” Officer Lee said. “We don’t want them to be sitting ducks. There’s a different game plan.” “We want to help students reduce their own fears and build confidence,” Officer Lee said. “We’ll be getting into more specifics about protecting ourselves and countering the bad guy. Each week we elevate the process a little more.”