DESOTO, Kan. — Your child’s school probably has a plan to deal with violent intruders, but one metro district is saying be proactive, instead of just hiding under a desk.
Random acts of violence have led the DeSoto School District to empower teachers, staff and students to take action against an intruder instead of being a sitting duck and hiding in a classroom.
Beginning this school year, the district requires schools to have intruder safety drills every six to eight weeks.
“Traditionally, what was done in school is we lock the doors, turn off the lights, we close the blinds and we move to a safe area within the room where the intruder wouldn’t be able to see us,” Maurice Loridon, school resource officer, said.
But now, Loridon says students in middle and high school are taught to use whatever is sitting in front of them whether it’s a school book, a stapler, a chair whatever they can do to distract the intruder and get out alive.
The intruder drill called ALICE, which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate will be taught to staff at all 12 schools in the DeSoto School District by the end of the school year.
