By: Christine Souders
csouders@cbs4qc.com
UPDATE:
Some Quad City Elementary students are being taught how to protect themselves against a potential intruder.
In the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, a DeWitt grade school is throwing out their old lock down system for a new plan of attack.
It's called A.L.I.C.E., or alert, lock down, inform, counter, and escape, and for the first time, students at Ekstrand Elementary are reacting, instead of hiding.
A 2nd grade class is learning from the Schools' Resource Officer about what to do if a bad stranger enters their school.
Here's a few things they learned:
"You listen to your teacher and run," said 2nd Grader Riley Horst.
"Go out the window," said 2nd Grader Drew Crank.
To explain A.L.I.C.E. to young kids, Officer Shawn Zeimet compares a gunman to a tiger, "We try to put off the training in a manner that's not threatening to the kids at this age level, especially kindergarten through 3rd grade in a way they're going to take it without being too scared."
But what if the tiger or bad stranger enters the classroom? Officer Zeimet shows the students how to counter by running around, and throwing things.
Something that's been controversial, because it means students can fight back.
But 7-year-old Drew Crank said he now knows what to do, "About the throwing thing, yes I can remember that for a long time."
Teachers we talked to said they like being given the choice to make an informed decision, "Sometimes being locked down in a corner isn't necessarily the best option and it gives us the opportunity to make the best judgment call and what we need to do for our students," said Jessica Heier, a 1st Grade Teacher at Ekstrand.
The program is also being implemented in the DeWitt middle school and high school.
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By: Christine Souders
csouders@cbs4qc.com
Since the shooting in Newtown, many schools are now throwing out their old lock down system of security and replacing it with a new plan.
Monday and Tuesday during school hours, some DeWitt Elementary students got a lesson that could be lifesaving.
DeWitt schools have spent the past couple months introducing a program named A.L.I.C.E. to their teachers, and are now training the students.
Ekstrand Elementary classes are learning about this new approach to safety. A.L.I.C.E. is an acronym which stands for alert, lock down, inform, counter, and escape.
Something that's been controversial because counter means students fight back.
But Tuesday, DeWitt Schools' Resource Officer Shawn Zeimet explained the plan to kindergartners through 3rd grade students. He said the A.L.I.C.E. Program gives teachers and students more options than the old code red system, where their only choice was to lock the door and hide until law enforcement arrived.
But how does someone explain A.L.I.C.E. to young students without scaring them? Well, Officer Zeimet said he compares a gunman to a tiger, "It's something that they recognize as a threat to them, and they know that would be dangerous to them, but at the same time, it's not so threatening, it's not bringing up the aspect of somebody being there with a gun."
But that's only one way of getting through to the kids, and Tonight on Ten at Ten we'll find out what students are learning from this, and how teachers feel about this more aggressive course of Acton.
