GEARY COUNTY USD 475 – USD 475 in conjunction with local law enforcement, emergency management and Fort Riley first responders performed a ALICE drill today.

During the summer USD 475 enhanced its emergency response tactics by implementing the ALICE Training Institute Program into its Emergency Operating Procedures (EOP). ALICE stands for:

• Alert, notify authorities and those in harm’s way of the danger at hand.
• Lockdown, or shelter in place.
• Inform, give real-time updates.
• Counter, the attacker as a last resort.
• Educate, or get out!

The program is designed to give a person, or a group of people, who may find themselves in a violent, life threatening situation, some mental and physical tools that could play a vital role in their survival. The program is designed so that anybody can employ the strategies. Young, old, male, female, it does not matter. One does not have to be a police, or military trained in order to survive a violent encounter. He or she does not need to have a frame of reference from which to draw, when making life saving decisions under extreme pressure, much like preparing for a fire, tornado or earthquake.

USD 475 trained staff on how to implement the program over the summer and now each school is putting what they learned into practice with the help of a building level crisis team and the Director of Emergency Management, Scott Clark who is a retired fire chief officer.

Each school year a school will take one month to perform a series of drills. Those drills will include:

• Severe weather
• Fire
• ALICE

USD 475 partners with Geary County and Fort Riley first responders during all ALICE Drills.

The safety and security of all students and staff is our main priority and it is our hope that students and staff members become better decisions makers during a crisis to put themselves in the best position possible if there were an unfortunate situation were to occur within USD 475.