With school safety increasingly in the limelight, Lakota officials have asked each building to review its policies and crisis plans.

Assistant Superintendent Robb Vogelmann said in the weeks following the 26 shooting deaths in Newtown, Conn., concerns about school safety have risen. He said parents should ask their children if they are aware of the practices and responses for emergency situations.

“The incident was extremely tragic and it really reminds us how important our safety and security protocols are in the schools,” said Superintendent Karen Mantia. “While education is our primary job, safety is first.”

Vogelmann said the district has always practiced lockdown drills, as required by law, as well as submitted crisis plans to the state by each December. But since the 2008-09 school year, Lakota has added ALICE training for each school building — an acronym for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate.

Vogelmann said ALICE training offers deeper preparation for dealing with an “active shooter.”

Following the Newtown shooting, Vogelmann said he asked each building administrator to review the policies again with their students and staff. He’s also requested a second practice lockdown drill be completed by February with a school resource officer present.

Vogelmann said depending on the age of the students, district staff will tailor specific training, such as using “stranger danger” in kindergarten and the more straightforward “active shooter” in the high schools.

There are three school resource officers within Lakota — one from the Butler County Sheriff’s Office and two from West Chester Police. Vogelmann said in order to be more “visual,” the police agencies have volunteered to station patrol officers in school parking lots during free time used to fill out paperwork.

Detailed in ALICE training, Vogelmann said the first thing anyone should do in an emergency is call 911. He said school staff are advised to be clear and concise on the PA system if there’s any known details about the shooter’s location.

“If you can get out of the building in that event, get out, evacuate,” Vogelmann said. “That’s one of the things we heard in the tragedy of Sandy Hook … people just waiting in their classroom, hoping and waiting until the badge comes.”

During a lockdown, teachers lock their doors and students slide their desks in front of the door, Vogelmann said. Students are advised not to react or move for a fire alarm which could be a ploy to get people out.

Also part of the ALICE training, teachers and students evacuate their building and meet at a designated “safe spot.”

Vogelmann said the “Counter” portion of ALICE training is meant as a last resort in the event a shooter comes into a classroom with a teacher and students inside.

“Do everything you can to fight for your life,” Vogelmann said. “If you have something to throw, throw it. Move, run, distract, just don’t sit there and be a passive target.”

Joan Powell, school board president, said the ALICE training just makes “good, logical sense.” She said any self defense training advises the participant to kick, scream, and do all they can to fight back.

Board member Julie Shaffer agreed, and said she attended a recent presentation by local law enforcement that shared statistics of those who chose to sit and do nothing, versus those you have chosen to counter.

“How much more successful the counter has been in these emergency situations … it really does compel you to say throwing that book or computer sounds like a pretty good darn idea,” Shaffer said.