PERRYSBURG – A new rapid-response training program is encouraging schools and other institutions to take
control in dangerous situations by actively resisting and evading aggressors.
Owens Community College Department of Public Safety presented a seminar Thursday on the ALICE strategy,
which provides organizations with techniques for proactively responding to the threat of a violent
attack on a large number of people. Built upon a comprehensive set of protocols – to alert, lock down,
inform, counter and evacuate – the strategy expands upon the traditional lockdown-based procedure during
aggressive intruder scenarios.
A handful of officers from the campus department became certified in the program, which was developed by
Texan SWAT team veterans who co-founded the group Response Options, shortly after the Virginia Tech
shootings two years ago. This is the second year the school has presented the program, which is intended
to reduce the number of casualties in an active shooting by confronting an attacker through organized
chaos. The training coincides with National Preparedness Month and the college’s second annual Emergency
Preparedness Safety Week.
Larry Cser, assistant director of Owens public safety, said before the training that the Virginia
incident directly precipitated his department’s involvement with the program. After the shooting,
college staff wanted to know what safety apparatus was in place to handle its own shooter situation.
"It was a concern because we basically told them … there wasn’t much we were going to be able to
do for them" at the time, he said.
The course arms those who could find themselves in imminent danger with defensive plans that include
barricading doors, hurling or rushing objects toward an attacker and escaping a dangerous location.
ALICE is designed to confuse hostile individuals, to provide police with fewer distraction inside the
perimeter and to diminish feelings of helplessness in staff and students.
Cser said people should resist an aggressor in a shooting scenario just as they would in a "stranger
danger" situation.
Regarding the risk of confronting an attacker, Cser said an inherent danger exists anyway when
encountering someone with violent intentions who holds a gun. He said tactics to disrupt the attacker,
like those used on United Airlines Flight 93, can prevent casualties.
"One person’s going to get hurt," he said. "But yet they may save 25, 30 lives."
He told the seminar’s roughly 15 attendees that, when security and deterrence measures fail, faculty and
students must be instructed in simple strategies to: facilitate intelligent escape; to force the
intruder to shoot accurately; and to use unknown advantages to win back control. Initially, he said,
people in an emergency should be alerted with complete information about the situation and people near
the immediate threat should go into lockdown mode and create an initial barrier.
Locking down works if people stay away from exposed areas, if the intruder does not enter classrooms and
if police find the intruder early. But lockdown mode alone still allows the shooter much publicity, many
targets and low resistance.
The program encourages schools to publicly announce all the intruder’s actions to intimidate and distract
him.
To counter the attacker if he enters a room and there is no escape, Cser said a class can swarm the
threatening person as he enters and yell and throw items at his head with a goal to interrupt his aim. A
group of people can also grab his weapon, or press it into him, or take him to the ground.
Finally, the plan calls for evacuation from the crisis zone if possible.
School shootings and violence are not a new phenomenon. As early as 1927, a former Lansing school board
member killed about 45 people with bombs. The issue came into the national spotlight after the 1999
Columbine massacre and again in 2007 when Seung-Hui Cho killed 33 people at Virginia tech. Cser said
people choose schools because they offer high-profile environments, a potential for mass casualties and
traditionally low resistance.
He listed some myths about school shootings, including: shooters always display violent tendencies; a
shooting could not occur in some towns; and that police will respond in time. Most events occur within
about eight minutes, he said, making it difficult for police to arrive in time.
"We can’t wait," he said. "We have to plan."
Schools warm up to defense training
PERRYSBURG – Some local school districts are warm to the idea of incorporating elements of a more
proactive emergency response strategy in their schools.
Administrators from Bowling Green and Perrysburg Schools, who have been exposed to the ALICE program, are
interested in exploring how elements of the violent intruder defense response system could be
implemented in their districts. The program – which helps organizations develop protocol to alert, lock
down, inform, counter and evacuate – was developed in 2000 by former SWAT team members after the
Columbine massacre and has gained more popularity recently with local law enforcement.
Owens Community College offered ALICE training Thursday by a certified instructor from the campus
department public safety department.
Area schools, so far, have been somewhat reluctant to request training in the program – possible for
liability reasons – said Larry Cser, assistant director of Owens public safety. The program encourages
schools to develop plans beyond a traditional lockdown procedure.
Still, the program has piqued the interest some school officials.
Perrysburg Schools Superintendent Thomas Hosler said he thought the program "made some great
points" about how to respond appropriately to a violent intruder event.
"I went through the initial presentation training … last year and brought it back to the district
and have talked to the board and administration about it, and it’s something that we’re very interested
in pursuing," he said. "But that’s as far as we’ve gotten."
Before anything of the sort could be implemented, he said the district would need to coordinate with
local law enforcement to develop changes in its procedures.
Hosler said he appreciated the point made in the program that school intruders, unlike some robbers or
other armed individuals, almost always intend to commit acts of violence – and that people in danger
should respond accordingly. However, he said, the logistics of evacuating hundreds of students in an
emergency could prove complicated without sufficient prior planning.
Overall, Hosler said he was "pretty excited" about some of the ideas presented in the program.

Bowling Green Schools Superintendent Hugh Caumartin said his district began discussing last year how
parts of the program could be used in its schools. He said the district has been working with Bowling
Green police to refine its crisis plans for a violent intruder scenario. Plans for enhancing crisis
communication and for establishing multiple evacuation points are of particular interest to the
district, he said.
Regarding the more controversial strategies for directly confronting aggressors, Caumartin said it would
not be realistic for young students to follow that sort of protocol but that certain components might be
more feasible at the high school level.
"The bottom line is, what we want to do is take a real hard look at this program and any others that
come along that will allow us to improve the safety for children," he said. "It’s pretty
simple stuff."
Larry Cser speaks to group at Owens Community College. 9/11/09 (Photo: J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune)