What is the school doing 

By law, we practice fire drills once every month but do not practice school shooting drills when there have been over 22 school shootings since 2018. After five weeks of school, we finally had our first school shooting assembly. Mr. Germundson spoke about the ALICE protocol. The main part that stuck out to me was lockdown. In case of there being an intruder, barricade the doors – which are the only way out of all the classrooms; the windows cant be opened, you can’t break the window, so initially, you are trapped in a room. There is nothing in the classrooms we can use to protect ourselves. We are left to depend on statistics and the likely hood of a shooter breaking down the doors. He also spoke of the mathematics, the chances of an intruder coming into a barricaded room. Will those numbers always be in our favor? I should not want to have to depend on the strength of my pears. I simply should not have to. There has to be a better protocol set in place. He also spoke of the resource officer. ” An officer is here at all times,” he says, but there is one officer here, the closest station is 12 mins away, and there are three floors in this building plus the CTA building. So tell me, how are we safe with just the ALICE protocol in place?

Student comments

“The policy is very open-ended it has room for improvement “

“I would rather evacuate than stay in a classroom”

“I think it’s invalid and there are no real measures in place to get out”

“How do they want us to be safe in a classroom with no way out”