HODGDON, Maine — Although Maine is one of a handful of states that have never experienced the horrors of a school shooting, police are actively working with school districts to improve security measures in their buildings.
On Monday, the SAD 70 school board heard a presentation from Sgt. Josh Haines, an 18-year veteran of the Maine State Police Troop F division, about the latest initiative that police are throwing their support behind — ALICE.
“I was tasked a few years ago to go around and assess where we were at in Aroostook County in regards to school safety,” Haines said. “I visited every school and reviewed copies of their safety plans.”
Haines said that for the last year, he has been working with schools to be more proactive in updating their security plans.
The ALICE tactic — considered controversial by some — differs from traditional thinking toward school lockdowns. Instead of having students barricade doors and hiding in one corner of their classroom, the initiative trains teachers and students to either escape the school building or, in some extreme cases, subdue would be attackers.
ALICE stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate and was developed by a Texas police offer following the 1999 Columbine High School shootings that killed 13 people in Colorado.
Columbine, he said, highlighted the flaws of the old approach to school violence incidents. Of the 13 killed in Columbine, 10 were shot in a library where 52 students, two teachers and two librarians tried to hide from the two shooters, he said. “During that whole time, they could have exited through a back door in the library.”
Law enforcement officers, including from the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office, Maine State Police, U.S. Border Patrol and local police departments in Aroostook County participated in a two-day training session Aug. 2-3 at Houlton Middle High School.
“Since then, we have really been promoting this training,” Haines said. “Most schools have a safety lock down plan of just ‘shelter in place.’ You hide the kids in the corner, lock the door and hopefully the door holds until law enforcement arrives.”
Haines said, a locked door will not deter someone who wishes to force his way into a school with a weapon.
He used the analogy that if the school building was on fire, school officials would not have their students hide in a classroom and wait for firefighters to arrive to rescue them, so why should students cower in fear in a corner of their classroom when they could easily escape out a window or side door?
Three school systems — SAD 42 (Mars Hill), Easton School System and Woodland Consolidated School — already have completed the ALICE training, while four others, RSU 39 (Caribou), SAD 1 (Presque Isle), SAD 24 (Van Buren) and RSU 50 (Southern Aroostook) have signed on to start training.
Superintendent Scott Richardson of SAD 70, which serves the communities of Amity, Cary Plantation, Haynesville, Hodgdon, Linneus, Ludlow and New Limerick, said May 15 that the decision to implement the ALICE program for staff and students was made at the administrative level and he did not anticipate the school board voting on the matter.
“I don’t think it will require a board vote, although I have heard some criticism,” he said. “It seems to have met with a great deal of support here in The County. As we proceed and make revisions to our emergency plans, the board will be updated and may vote on these revisions. I plan on proceeding with the training in August for all employees.”
Richardson added he did not believe there would be any cost to the school district for this training.
