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Officer to help Springfield students empower themselves during threats
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Sgt. Ken Goist of the New Middletown Police Department is the only member of the bike patrol
NEW MIDDLETOWN
School resource officer Sgt. Ken Goist sat in a classroom that had been locked down. Suddenly, an intruder burst into the room and opened fire.
Luckily for Goist, the bullets were tennis balls and the situation was part of a training exercise. But it did give the New Middletown police officer a new perspective.
“As a victim, how did we feel just sitting there? I was helpless. I just sat there and got shot,” he said.
Goist, who works in Springfield schools, is taking part in ALICE training, which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Information, Counter and Evacuation. ALICE emphasizes students evacuating a building if there’s an active shooter situation and they have enough information to escape safely. The current lockdown procedure has students turn out the lights, lock the door and hide.
“With ALICE, we’re teaching kids to empower themselves, that they have a right to defend themselves and to get away,” Goist said.
Police Chief Vincent D’Egidio said some have questioned ALICE as being too chaotic for an emergency situation.
“There’s been some concern from administrators and parents that you won’t be able account for a child, but our feelings are that with ALICE, we’d rather account for a child alive a couple of hours later rather than the child dying for staying in the same place,” D’Egidio said.
Ohio law mandates that schools have at least one lockdown drill before Dec. 1, said Springfield High School Principal Anthony DeFelice.
“From a school district standpoint it’s, how do you facilitate and practice for a drill like ALICE?” DeFelice said.
He added that the high school has security cameras throughout the building and that safety plans are reviewed annually.
Goist will lead a multidepartment training Dec. 11 for township employees, and after that ,will meet with school officials. DeFelice said during that meeting, the district will “apparently be making major changes in training.”
Goist said ALICE could prevent another Columbine, referring to Columbine High School in Colorado, which was the scene 11 years ago where two teenagers killed 13 people and wounded 24 before killing themselves.
“With Columbine, a lot of kids could have got out,” Goist said. “It’s not our fault; [lockdown] is just the way we’ve been taught, and what you’ve been taught is what you go back to in a crisis situation.”