ALICE Training at Stonehill College

By Maya Graham


Alexis DaSilva, a freshman at Stonehill College, remembers the chill she felt when the “gunman” pointed the “gun” at her head and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

“I felt so helpless and it made me realize how easy it is for these people to kill,” DaSilva said.

It was all part of ALICE training (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) where the Stonehill Police Department members acted as shooters during different scenarios, using nerf guns to stimulate real life events.

Stonehill College had adopted the training in 2016 to prepare students and staff in the case of an emergency.

The trainings are coordinated by the Stonehill College Police Department.

This year the training started at the beginning of September and is running until the end of the semester.

For the first time, the class of 2022 was required to participate in one training as part of their First Year Experience class.

The trainings involved three hours of preparation including powerpoints, lectures and hands on scenarios where students practiced techniques they had learned.

ALICE is unique to other trainings because it teaches specific techniques like distractions and swarming methods, Stonehill Police David Wordell said.

“ALICE allows the instructors to show exactly what methods can be used to lockdown a room. We don’t just say lockdown...we show what goes into locking down a room,” Wordell said.

DaSilva recently underwent the training and believes that it would make it harder for a shooter to accomplish their goal of killing as many people as possible.

“I believe that this way is 100 percent more effective because the old way makes you feel helpless and as if you are just sitting ducks hoping that the shooter doesn’t come in and plow through the whole classroom,” DaSilva said.

This training is an alternative to the traditional and not as effective lockdown only approach, Wordell said.

“There are still places that teach the traditional method of lock the room, turn off the lights, and hide in a corner,” Wordell said.

There are other active shooter response models that are options for different organizations.

According to the ALICE Training Institute, 950 higher education institutions use ALICE training. There is over 4,000 colleges in the United States.

Wordell said he feels ALICE training is perfect for Stonehill College and works well with the students and faculty.

“I genuinely feel like I’m better prepared than I was before because now I know how to barricade a door. In high school we had to just sit down and wait but all I wanted to do was get out and in ALICE training you can escape and that’s what I wanted to hear and what makes most sense” Kay Riley, a freshman who underwent the training, said.

Riley said the most important takeaway from ALICE training was to never give up and to keep fighting.

DaSilva and Riley said they felt empowered after completing the training.

Wordell said empowering people is the point.

“Don’t become a flat squirrel. Make a decision. It’s a reference to the fact that squirrels have a tendency when crossing a roadway and coming upon a vehicle will run back and forth, never picking a side of the road to go to and eventually they get run over. Any decision is better than no decision,”  Wordell said.