Toledo school administrators are learning what to do if there's an active shooter situation at their school. It's part of a threat training program designed to teach school leaders how to keep themselves and students safe.
It's a reality schools have to face: How to respond if a student brings a gun to school, how to keep students safe if there's a violent intruder in the building.
The training is through a program called ALICE – Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. It's a program that teaches schools how to handle an emergency situation such as a school shooting and how to keep students safe.
"It's a sign of the times. It's where we are nowadays and those who do not prepare for situations like this, they're putting themselves in a bad situation," said Dr. Carnel Smith, principal of Scott High School.
During the training, Toledo police officers learned techniques and best practices on what to do if there's a school threat.
"Any type of situation that's going to put anybody in harm it could be an argument that happens outside it doesn't have anything to do with the facility itself, or it could have moved in," said Toledo police officer Prince Flores.
The creators of ALICE have brought this training program to other area schools to better prepare schools on school safety. What they're learning here could mean the difference between life and death.
"It is definitely unfortunate that we do have to train for these types of incidents but it is a reality that has happened throughout our country and in other countries. So we want to be prepared. We want to make sure that our staff, our students have the tools to handle those types of situations," said Diana Ruiz-Krause, director of public safety for Toledo public schools.