By Jim Newell

Review Editor

In the aftermath of the tragic school shooting at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, many people learned, for the first time, that the students had received ALICE training.

ALICE training teaches people how to respond in an active shooter (or violent attacker) situation. Many institutions – from schools to houses of worship, restaurants and businesses and other groups – have had their members go through ALICE Training so that they know how to best respond should they ever be confronted with such an emergency.

Now, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office is sponsoring a free training session for civilians at Kensington Church – Orion Township campus from 7-9 p.m. on March 23.

“After the Oxford High School shooting, Sheriff Mike Bouchard mentioned in his press conference how the kids performed so well in utilizing the ALICE training they had received through the schools from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. We may never know how many lives were saved as a result of this training,” said Mike Harvill, security director for Kensington.

“At Kensington, we thought it would be good to make the ALICE training available to the community at-large, especially the parents of school age kids, so they could learn the same information their kids are learning at school. Unfortunately, we live in a day when shootings occur at not only schools but anywhere, workplace, houses of worship, restaurants, etc.,” he said.

ALICE Training teaches people how to respond during an active shooter “at a school, business, house of worship, public gatherings or any place to help prevent, mitigate, respond and recover from a violent critical incident,” according to the ALICE training website.

A – Alert: Alert is when you first become aware of a threat. The sooner you understand that you’re in danger, the sooner you can save yourself. A speedy response is critical. Seconds count.

L – Lockdown: If evacuation is not a safe option, barricade entry points into your room in an effort to create a semi-secure starting point.

I – Inform: Communicate the violent intruder’s location and direction in real time.

C – Counter: Create Noise, Movement, Distance and Distraction with the intent of reducing the shooter’s ability to shoot accurately. Counter is NOT fighting. It is a strategy of last resort.

E – Evacuate: When safe to do so, remove yourself from the danger zone.

Kensington hosted an ALICE Training session at the Troy campus in 2018 and had 800 people attend. The church hopes that at least that many will attend the Orion session.

“We encourage everyone in our community to consider attending this training, including parents of school-aged children and those participating in houses of worship. This event utilizes ALICE Training, which has equipped hundreds of churches, thousands of schools, and more than eighteen million individuals,” Harvill said. “It will be presented by the OCSO and we have asked Sheriff Bouchard to join us to kick off the presentation. Our goal is to have about 1,000 in attendance.”

For more information about the ALICE training program, go to www.alicetraining.com.