Poplar Bluff teachers get training in active shooting situations - KAIT-Jonesboro, AR-News, weather, sports

POPLAR BLUFF, MO (KAIT)- Teachers in the Poplar Bluff school district is learning what to do in an active shooting situation.

Teachers learned the acronym A.L.I.C.E., which stands for alert, lock down, inform, counter, and evacuate. The workshop was conducted by Lt. Kenny Mayberry and Sgt. Tom Bradley of the Southeast Missouri University Department of Public Safety.

They showed teachers what to do if a shooter entered their classroom and opened fire.

 "There are ways you can handle yourself,"Bradley said. "Or an active shooter if they come to your room you know you don't have to just hide underneath your table, there are other things you can do to help you stay alive."

 Mayberry and Bradley encouraged teachers to do something because it's better to do something than nothing at all.  Although other training programs might teach staff to hide in this type of situation, the Alice program stresses evacuation and knowing how to distract the shooter.

"So run if you can run,"Bradley said. "Put space between you and him, distract him, whatever you got in your hand throw at him to so he can't get a good sight on you. And then just get away."

Christine Innes is a fourth grade teacher at Oak Grove Elementary School and says the seminar really put things into prospective.

"This can be anywhere; it can be any one of our students," Innes said.

Innes says she took note on what she could use in her classroom to distract a shooter. "We were talking about trash cans, books, shoving the filing cabinets."

Bradley and Mayberry also suggested teachers use items such as pens, pencils, scissors, even can goods.

Physical Education teacher Chris Smith said the biggest takeaway for him was to always be prepared.

 "You know you never think this is going to happen at your school," Smith said. "Or at this school but I'm sure at Sandy Hook, they didn't think that was going to happen. And you have to be prepared for situations like this so you can prepare your students and your staff."

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