Create chaos; complying is dying

Orrville gets training in A.L.I.C.E. techniques from PD

By PAUL LOCHERStaff Writer Published:

ORRVILLE -- "If you comply, you die."

That was the overwhelming message Orrville police detective Josh Hunt tried to hammer into 700 teachers and classified staff from four Wayne County school districts who crowded into the Orrville Middle School cafeteria for training sessions in A.L.I.C.E. techniques.

More than 200 personnel from Orrville, Rittman, Southeast and Dalton, as well as the Orrville Boys & Girls Club, attended each of the day's three sessions that focused on ways people caught in the cross-hairs during a deadly school invasion could respond, rather than huddling together in a corner waiting for a gunman to find and kill them.

Hunt, a veteran Orrville police officer and school resource officer, said he and other Orrville school administrators underwent A.L.I.C.E. training in June. They had planned to present it to teachers and staff after the dust settled on the new Orrville High School construction project. But after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, they felt they needed to do the presentation as soon as possible.

Hunt was assisted in the presentation by officers from the Wayne County Sheriff's Office and the Dalton Police.

Sheriff's Capt. Doug Hunter said the training "is about giving options, not challenging people with guns," as some people portray it.

Hunter said it's one thing for a teacher to lock students in a room and hide with them in a corner in the event a gunman invades the school. "But what if the lock gets breached?" Hunter asked. "What do you do then?"

Hunt said he found it "incredible to be standing in front of 700 people talking about having to defend ourselves against school shooters, but that's the way it is today." He said his intent was to "give the best tools possible to make sure students and teachers are safe."

The detective said he was not there to criticize procedures that had long been in place, but rather to enhance the options available.

"It's not about training students to fight armed suspects," Hunt said, but rather to use "common sense" techniques for survival.

Hunt reviewed the lengthy history of school shootings in the U.S., starting with the first such incident in 1853 and tracing them through Columbine, Virginia Tech, Chardon and Sandy Hook. He presented a comparison chart showing the extent to which Orrville mirrors Chardon's demographics, and said both towns think the shootings are something that could never happen there.

Hunt illustrated how brief the time frames were for the school shootings, with only 15 minutes elapsing between the time killer Adam Lanza entered Sandy Hook until the incident ended with him taking his own life.

The speaker repeatedly drove home the point that the only thing a school shooter has come for is to see how many people he can kill, and is looking for the easiest targets while avoiding a confrontation with law enforcement.

"If he is able, he will hurt you," said Hunt. "He wants nothing from you except your life. He wants the highest number of kills in the shortest time. He wants to be the number one killer in recorded history. He plans to die today. Negotiating is futile."

Hunt said schools are prime targets of mass killers for a variety of reasons, the most important of which are low resistance, many passive targets, the ability to generate a lot of publicity about his deed, low chance of his plan failing, and lockdowns do little to affect his access to targets.

According to the detective, such shooters have little skill with firearms and rely on their targets being static. He said the shooter at Virginia Tech actually practiced shooting targets that were laying on the ground.

Hunt said a determined killer will always be able to find a way to enter a school. "Then what?" he asked.

He went on to talk to teachers about how they would be psychologically scarred for life if students in their care would be killed by a shooter.

"There are some things you never get out of your mind," said Hunt. "That's something you will live with the rest of your life if it happens," he added, vividly describing the cacophony of violence inherent in such an incident.

Another major problem with current lockdowns, Hunt said, is after the initial lockdown announcement, administrators flow information only to law enforcement. Teachers hiding in their rooms may not receive any further information until hours later.

The instructor said under A.L.I.C.E. the procedure is to sound an alert, go into lockdown, inform those in the school about what is happening, take countermeasures and evacuate the building. He said the technique "integrates technology with common sense and human instinct," which is either to freeze, flee or fight back.

He said all school employees should have the phone number of the local police department programmed into their cellular telephones on speed dial. He warned not to call 9-1-1, because the call could be routed elsewhere and waste valuable time. Hunt said teachers should assess their classrooms to determine what objects provide concealment and cover.

"Know your classroom, office or workspace," Hunt advised.

The detective presented videos filmed in Orrville High School in which classrooms of students reacted to various scenarios of a gunman in the hall or entering the room. In one, male students joined in throwing desks and chairs into a barricade in front of the door to prevent entry, as other students jumped out the windows. In another video, students threw objects at the gunman before swarming him and wrestling him to the floor, as other students escaped out the windows.

In addition, Hunt showed a variety of common, inexpensive items that could be kept in a classroom to help prevent entry, or care for students in an emergency.

"Complying is dying," he repeated, saying students trapped in a classroom could throw all kinds of objects at a gunman and improvise weapons that could slow him down. He also demonstrated how two females he selected from the audience could latch onto and drag down Orrville High School coach Sly Slaughter, playing the role of a gunman.

"Don't be static," said Hunt. "Swarm the shooter. Anything beats nothing. Create chaos. Create mayhem. Our job is to limit the number of people shot."


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  • 'Complying is dying' sounds catchy, but I'd love to know the statistics that back that up. No doubt in some cases it's true, but I also read a case this month where the weapon-carrying assailant was talked down. I've also been in situations where the rifle was pointed at me and others, and I have no doubt that that particular advice would have gotten us killed each time. Certainly in the theater and Connecticut school room situations, where the assailant plans to go out in a blaze of infamy taking as many people as possible, that philosophy has logic to it. And it probably worked on the plane on 9/11. But it's also difficult to rely on everyone in a crowd, whether you know them or not, to take concerted effective action. The correct response, if there is one, will depend upon the circumstances.