School safety is a priority at St. Rita’s Catholic School. Siena has adopted the ALiCE model for all our school safety needs in the event of an active shooter/serious situation that may cause a lockdown. In any type of serious situation, the minutes that pass while people are waiting for police to respond are crucial. The ALiCE acronym exists to help those trained to do everything we can to save as many individuals as possible. 

A=Alert

L=Lockdown

i=Inform

C= Counter

E=Evacuate

In the fall of 2021, all Siena staff were required to participate in an online module training provided to us by Navigate 360. And, each year staff is asked to refresh their learning through a module for completion. Each staff member had to pass the online course in order to receive their certification. 100% of St. Rita’s staff is certified. As a result of our continued training and safety for all messaging, our school wide ALiCE training will be focused on:

• Discussing the word “barricade” with our students. 

  • Many of us used to be trained with the idea that a simple lockdown would be used in an emergency, but this is no longer the case. If a classroom had to utilize lockdown as a safety measure, lockdowns are now joined with barricading. Therefore, the purpose of this notification is to share that at our April or May lockdown practice drill, we will be incorporating barricading as part of our biannual state-required lockdowns:

    • Barricade means to block; create a barrier between two things.

    • Verbally sharing and seeking feedback from the students as they look around the room, asking what objects might be used for barricading/items to be placed in front of the door.

We do practice lockdowns and students will enter a lockdown and then engage in this learning discussion.

THERE WILL BE NO PHYSICAL PRACTICE OF BARRICADING IN ANY CLASSROOMS AT THIS TIME. 

The goal is to help students understand what the word means and to visually identify items in the room that they may use to barricade inside the room if needed.

As a reminder, ALiCE stands for

Alert – Alert is your first notification of danger. Maintain good situational awareness to overcome normalcy bias and ensure the best response to a critical incident or violent intruder.

Lockdown – Barricade the room.

Inform – Communicate the violent intruder’s location and direction in real-time. To do this, pass on real-time information using any means necessary. Examples are video surveillance, 911 calls, and PA announcements.

Counter – Not to be confused with fighting, this step involves creating noise, movement, distance, and distraction. Its intent is to reduce the shooter’s ability to shoot accurately.

Evacuate – Safe and strategic evacuation techniques get people out of harm’s way. Understand how your current environment impacts your ability to evacuate and discover the safest ways to do so.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. We pray we never have to be in such a situation. However, if we do, we are fully trained and prepared to keep everyone as safe as possible.

*3K, 4K, and K participate in the lockdown only. We are very sensitive to their levels of our littlest learner's needs and keep all of this very simple. The staff in the rooms are responsible for their safety and use their judgement as ALiCE trained teachers.