Students and faculty concerned with their safety on campus can request a training program offered by NIU Campus Police.

ALICE, which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate, is a requestable seminar for students and faculty interested in learning how to respond in an active shooter situation. The seminar provides attendees with tools and techniques, giving them options other than the traditional lockdown and can be requested on the NIU Campus Police webpage.

On Tuesday night, three trained NIU police officers hosted ALICE for students in Barsema Hall. None of the students who attended had prior knowledge of ALICE and shared how they were taught the traditional lockdown in active shooter scenarios.

“If you can leave, you make sure you leave because our goal is to make sure you’re not a victim, make sure you survive,” said Maria Christiansen, NIU Campus Police officer.

Christiansen said ALICE is a non-sequential process, giving flexible options for any situation so individuals can respond based on what will give them the best chance to survive.

Christiansen said the alert can be anything from shattering glass to gunshots or hearing more commotion in the halls than normal. It does not need to come from an intercom announcement. She explained the importance because if the alert, like gunshots or shattering glass, is closer to an individual’s position it may affect what technique from ALICE they choose to respond with.

Christiansen explained in a counter situation individuals should grab anything they can and throw it at the shooter, whether it be a stapler, a chair, a water bottle or a laptop because it may cause damage and incapacitate the shooter.

“You can replace those things, you can’t replace your life,” Christiansen said.

Scenarios

The second portion of the seminar gave attendees the opportunity to practice their newly acquired situational decision-making techniques.

The first scenario exemplified how ineffective the traditional lockdown method is. A volunteer playing the shooter role was instructed to take his time while making his way up and down the rows of tables and shooting at students under them.

Sinclair said as she participated in the traditional lockdown scenarios she watched the volunteer’s feet walking past her, and she couldn’t help but think of why the technique would be so widely taught when it seemed ineffective.

When the scenario ended almost the entire class raised their hand after Shaunda Wilson, NIU Campus Police officer, asked who was hit with a Nerf dart.

“Look how many people he hit just walking and taking his time, in the dark, because we did nothing,” Wilson said.

Other scenarios focused on evacuating a room, barricading the doors with tables and chairs and also taking an active role in their survival if they’re out of options by throwing stress balls at the shooter. Since ALICE is situation-based, during the lockdown scenario Wilson said the shooter was down the hall, which limits options because students needed to act quickly.

“A killer’s purpose is to kill as many people as they can,” Wilson said. “If they can’t open the door, nine times out of 10, they will move on,” Wilson said.

Williams demonstrated how individuals could wrap a long electrical cord around the door handle and pull it taut from the position they are standing out of sight from the door’s window. Williams also said the fire department will give pieces of old fire hoses out, if asked, and the material can be placed over the arm at the top of the door, making it very difficult to open.

Sinclair said before training she would not have been sure on what to do in an active shooter scenario, and she would have probably reverted back to the traditional lockdown technique. She said the seminar has given her more confidence in how to respond.

“Now I know to not do that, get out or barricade,” Sinclair said.

The lockdown portion of ALICE taught students how to barricade the doors if they are unable to evacuate, while the inform portion touched on keeping up to date with the information you have access to.

The traditional lockdown technique, as most students were taught in grade school, calls for individuals to turn off the lights, crawl under their desks and remain silent.

“[Christiansen] talked about the policy that we’ve all been taught since we were kids is to hide and to get under tables,” said senior marketing major Caitlyn Sinclair. “And so now it was nice to have a policy where we are taught to fight, and I think that’s important because of recent events and shootings becoming so frequent.”

Christiansen said being informed can give you a better chance to react and respond, so it gives you a better chance to save yourself.

“If you can’t get away, you can’t barricade, you want to counter,” Christiansen said.