The new school year is just around the corner and with it comes renewed concerns about school safety.
According to the Pew Research Center, 57% of teens and 63% of parents say that they are worried on some level about the possibility of a school shooting happening at their school. To help prepare their staff for all possibilities, Lima Catholic Schools is putting teachers and administrators through Alice Training. Local law enforcement was there to take them through the civilian response training to an active shooter and show them all the different aspects they need to look at when assessing a situation.
"We're learning what Alice actually mean," says Lima Central Catholic principal Stephanie Williams. "We're learning just to be mindful of our surroundings at all times, we're learning about bombs, so there's just a whole host of things that they're covering so far this morning."
For teachers, training like this has become just another part of the job. The extra effort is worth the time to them if it means keeping their students safe from unexpected threats.
"The very most important thing to me is always the love and safety of my students in the classroom so of course I'm going to teach the curriculum every day but I need to be mindful of my surroundings and that I do keep them safe and that we realize it's situational," says St. Charles Catholic School science teacher Charris Douglass. "That there's not a script for that happening ever but that we're ready and prepared and as educated as we can be."
Teachers started classes back up at St. Charles on August 22, 2018, with all the knowledge they need to keep their students safe, and all the hope that they will never have to use that knowledge.