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Each year, schools conduct fire drills to train students and staff to exit a building quickly and safely.
School fires are rare, yet fire safety practice continues.
Last week Luverne Public Schools implemented a new safety training intended to protect students in school shootings.
There have been 160 active shooter incidents in the United States between 2000 and 2013, according to FBI data. The majority of the incidents occurred in the commercial environment (73 incidents or 45.6 percent) with 24.3 or 39 incidents occurring in an educational setting.
“I keep saying that this is not just a school issue, but an everyday life issue,” said Evan Verbrugge, Rock County sheriff and a member of the school’s ALICE team.
ALICE is an active shooter civilian response training program. It stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate.
The school sent a delegation of its employees for training certification. This spring the delegation began training staff members, who instructed students each day last week.
Previously staff and students were instructed in a lockdown-only approach, where hiding under tables was recommended.
ALICE trainings give students and staff more options than just locking down when an active shooter enters the campus.
They now have tools to proactively handle the threat of an aggressive intruder or active shooter event.
The training culminated Friday in a school evacuation to predetermined safe locations.
A parent information session is planned for a future date.
FBI’s Active Shooter Incidents Study findings
•Active shooter incidents are becoming more frequent. The first seven years of the study show an average of 6.4 incidents annually, while the last seven years show 16.4 incidents annually.
•Incidents result in a total of 1,043 casualties (486 killed, 557 wounded — not counting the shooters.)
•All but six of the 160 incidents studied involved male shooters. Only two involved more than one shooter, including the 1999 Columbine School shootings.
•More than half of the incidents (90 shootings) ended on the shooter’s initiative (suicide or fleeing) while 21 incidents ended after unarmed citizens successfully restrained the shooter.
•In 21 of the 45 incidents where law enforcement had to engage the shooter to end the threat, nine officers were killed and 28 were wounded.
ALICE training open to other businesses, organizations
Trainers from the ALICE Training Institute plan to visit Luverne for a train-the-trainer event in June.
Businesses, organizations and individuals interested in the training can contact Sheriff Verbrugge at 507-283-5000.