Barberton school board members, parents and police officers gathered Monday night at Barberton High School to focus on security measures in the city’s schools buildings following the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Newtown, Conn.
“It was a good conversation,” School Board President Dennis Liddle said. “You can’t 100 percent think that something like that would never happen. All you can do is educate and be as diligent as you can.”
School Board President Dennis Liddle said parents were able to ask two police officers questions at the meeting who were involved with training with the teachers.
Prior to the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., Liddle said Barberton school officials have practiced drills with a security procedure implemented a year ago called ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) in the past few weeks.
The security program teaches students, based on their ages, how to evaluate a situation in which an intruder enters the building. If the students are older, they’re taught to leave the rooms, if safe, with desks and things to throw. For the younger students, if an intruder enters their room, they are to scream and throw objects to distract the person.
ALICE also teaches students how to evacuate the building, with hands up, so police can identify the intruder from students.
“The parents were extremely happy,” Liddle added. “They thanked the police officers for talking about it and being proactive in training everyone, and they thanked the board.”
