WCC students learn how to respond in event of active shooter

Staff Writer

Seventy percent of active-shooting events end in five minutes or less, leaving little to no time for law enforcement to respond. That means responsibility for survival lies with every individual.

A traditional “lock down” consists of cowering under the nearest table or in the corner of a room, making teachers or the other protectors open targets. A new approach, known as ALICE, is here to change this procedure.

Scott Hilden and Craig Tilman, WCC security personnel, working to educate students on how to raise their chances for survival if there were to be an active shooter on campus. They offer classes twice a month.

ALICE is a technique that goes beyond lock-down procedures. The acronym stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter, and evacuate. ALICE is proactive and by following the steps, can increase chances for survival, officials said.

Survival is based on two outcomes, escape and run.  

Have a plan

At a presentation in the Liberal Arts Building Wednesday, the WCC security officers taught roughy 10 students that it’s important to plan an escape. They encouraged students to maintain an awareness of current surroundings, including someone’s stance, behavior, and especially where their hands are placed.

Hilden, chief of public and emergency safety, and Tilman, a security patrol officer, spoke about being trapped in a classroom and what options there were to escape.

“Glass can be defeated” Tilman stressed.

If in a situation where the door means danger, a window can be broken. By hitting the outer corners of a window with something strong enough, for example a desk or chair, the window will shatter.  

During the two-hour lesson, students in the class listened and watched videos from school shootings in Columbine and Monterrey. The videos showed how outdated the lockdown procedures are. When the students could have been running out the door, they were instructed otherwise thus leaving their lives in the hands of the shooter.

Students were taught statistics from active-shooting studies over the course of 15 years. The data shows 40 to 60 percent of shooters either commit suicide or the gunman is stopped in under five minutes. It is imperative, Hilden said, every individual knows and has a plan of action.

The security professionals used a volunteer to show how to distract an aggressor.

Hilden tossed a single ball back and forth with the student volunteer, creating a rhythm. After the rhythm was established, Tilman threw an abundance of balls towards the student, creating a moment of shock or distraction.

That, they said, showed a shooter can be diverted. An aggressor cannot shoot more than a single target at a time, if a target is moving, a bullseye is just as difficult.

Once the distraction is created, Tilman and Hilden stressed the importance of running and escaping.  

Remember ALICE

The WCC security officials also presented a video from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The short film was called Run, Hide, Fight, a commercial version of ALICE. If you cannot run, hide, if you cannot hide, fight, with everything you have. It is your responsibility to survive.

ALICE teaches civilians to:

• Be alert and recognize their surroundings. (Most 911 calls for active shooters are for firework noise or complaints of firecrackers.) Civilians should also take notice if there is any screaming or loud noise.
• Lockdown, find a safe place and barricade any doors, if there is an exit, go through it and call 911 when safe. If there are no exits, or exit is breached, find anything that can be used as a weapon.
• Inform, use any method available to inform anyone in the surrounding areas about the shooter. That includes public announcement systems, phones, radios.
• Counter, use distraction methods, try to evade the shooter from using the weapon.
• Evacuate, run as fast as possible. Leave belongings, life is not replaceable, iPhone’s are. If evacuation is not possible, barricade until law enforcement is available. Do not open the door for anyone.

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