This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Ohio U chapter.
Have you ever wondered what you would do if there was an active shooter on campus? Do you think you would be able to react swiftly in order to save your life or the lives of others?
The Ohio University Police Department is offering a second active shooter training session in the Baker Theatre on Wednesday Feb. 27 at seven p.m.
OU was one of the first universities to teach ALICE, which stands for Alert Lockdown Inform Counter Evacuate. OUPD has taught this many times before but has just recently decided to offer public sessions. This decision, however, has nothing to do with the armed robbery that recently took place on campus.
Chief Andrew Powers stated that the goal behind this training is “to get people to think about their options and not just freeze up in this kind of situation.”
A university campus is not a high school but rather a small city and therefore is impossible to completely lock down. ALICE urges people to realize they have more options besides the common reaction to lock the doors and stay where they are.
This session provides people with the ability to think through their options and plan a response when dealing with an active shooter situation.
Even in the fastest responses, it will take a couple minutes till the police arrive which means civilians are ultimately the first responders.
Chief Powers explained, “What happens in those few minutes can be critical to saving lives and we want to try to teach people to think through all the options they have available to them and plan a strategy for survival.”
The ALICE training session on Feb. 27 gives you the opportunity to increase your reaction time and learn how to respond in a deadly situation, skills that could ultimately prove life saving.