A - Alert. Alert is your first notification of danger.
The alert or alarm is NOT your first notification of danger. There were many notices or red flags around the Uvalde shooter, long before he walked into that school. Whether actions in or out of school, social media or in-person threats, we MUST take them a whole lot more seriously than we do today. Once the perpetrator(s) have breached any kind of perimeter,it is too late and children will likely suffer serious injury or worst.Waiting for any kind of alarm means you are 8 steps AWAY from zero (the opportunity to prevent) and 1 step AWAY from ten ( whenit’s too late).
L - Lockdown. Barricade the room. Prepare to EVACUATE or COUNTER if needed.
Lockdowns immobilize and paralyze movement. Movement out of the danger zone, even if managed during an active event (RUN, RUN, AND RUN), widens the target area and reduces possible targets. Uvalde;even after lockdown was announced, procedures were not there to ensure that the doors were all barred. The shooter simply strolled into the school. Once he did, and the kids were hunkered down within,it was not going to end well.
I - Inform. Communicate the violent intruder’s location and direction in real-time.
Panicked and terrified kids trying to call, giving incorrect information and location info! This approach will likely confuse any kind of response. Depending on their age they are more likely to call loved ones than law enforcement. Again, a reaction that is too little too late. The wolf is already in the pen. Uvalde kids called parents asking them to come and save them!
C - Counter. Create Noise, Movement, Distance, and Distraction with the intent of reducing the shooter’s ability to shoot accurately. Counter is NOT fighting.
In “L”it was lockdown and barricade;now it ismake noise to distract. Surely, if an evacuation was not implemented, it is better to stay quiet and not draw attention to your location. It is naïve to think that shooters will be distracted by anything other than being engaged by an armed professional. Are children expected to play noisy hide and seek with an active shooter?Shooters are fundamentally cowards and had law enforcement engaged, immediately and aggressively, the Uvalde tragedy might have been avoided.
E - Evacuate. When safe to do so, remove yourself from the danger zone.
At this point in A.L.I.C.E. training, this is all about mitigation and not prevention. Evacuation should be the first priority if there is any window of opportunity to do so. There was enough time and notice at Uvalde to evacuate instead they locked DOWN the kids, instead of locking OUT the shooter. When the lockdown notice was given teachers should have immediately escorted their wards out as quickly as humanly possible. At Uvalde, the classroom was on a first floor and children could have rapidly been passed out of the window and told to RUN RUNRUN. Kids running out of the front door or climbing out of the window, when the shooter is coming in the back door, would have had a much better chance of survival over being locked in the same classroom.
UVALDE: Red-Flags ignored–Easy weapon acquisition – No Evacuation – Failed LOCKOUT– Law Enforcement DID NOT do their job – a perfect STORM for a National Tragedy.
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