ALICE Safety Drill on Tuesday, September 19

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Dear Families,

On Tuesday, September 19, we will conduct a lockdown drill with all teachers and students at Nature Hill during the school day. In this drill, the ALICE safety protocol will be reviewed with students.

In August 2016, district administrators attended an intensive two-day ALICE training session. This training was also conducted at each school site with all teachers and support staff at the beginning of the school year. OASD is implementing ALICE, a federally endorsed safety protocol district-wide. ALICE works hand in hand with our existing crisis response procedures. ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate.

The goal of ALICE training is to learn strategies that empower individuals to take action in the event of a school threat or an intruder in the building. School districts in our area are moving to this new protocol, which is used by more than 3,700 schools nationwide. ALICE training helps staff learn new proactive strategies for responding to crisis situations. “Lock the door and hide” might be an appropriate strategy in some situations. In other cases, teachers and students might take precautions to barricade the entrance of the classroom, or even choose to leave the building if that is the safest option.

On September 19, Ali and I, along with our teachers, will begin to present the ALICE strategies and language to students.  This will be done in an age-appropriate way, during the soft lockdown drill that will be inside the building. At a time convenient to each classroom, teachers will escort students on a walk around campus in order to help familiarize students with each of the three rally point areas that students can report in an emergency evacuation situation.

More information about ALICE, including Frequently Asked Questions, is on the District website under Family Resources. We also want to offer families the opportunity to preview the presentation on Monday, September 18 at 3:15pm in the Nature Hill Library. You are also welcome to set up time to meet with me to discuss any questions that you or your child may have about ALICE and our emergency response procedures.

The safety of all students, staff and visitors to our building is our highest priority. We have a responsibility to those in our care to have proactive, options-based safety strategies, and my hope is that by taking these steps to increase awareness and learn new safety skills, we will continue to keep all students as safe as possible. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns at 262-569-4941 or email me at curtisj@oasd.org. 

Thank you for your support!
Jason