So I met today with the other theater managers and a police officer. Our district has adopted the "A.L.I.C.E." training program.
A= Alert (be aware)
L= Lock Down (secure your space as much as possible)
I= Inform (Notify the police and administration)
C= Counter (Is there a way to fight back? Protect yourself)
E= Evacuate
So it's similar but a little different from the "Run, Hide, Fight" strategy that others are using. Also when you consider the school environment, it makes a little more sense. I'm not sure that the first step of having 1,500 kids all start running off campus is the best solution. Right? However if the shooter is inside the theater "run, hide, fight" is the strategy that makes the most sense. The officer pointed out that the truth is in situations where the first reaction is a group of people in the crowd attacking the shooter, body counts are extremely low. So in some situations the best solution is just "Fight". However, you can't count on what you will do in the situation let alone what the audience will do. So planning for "fight" is a bad choice. "Run, Hide, Fight" makes a lot more sense.
We talked a lot about saving yourself vs. protecting those in the theater. The officer stressed that it is not a job requirement to risk our lives for people in the theater. Since it's a school, we may feel compelled to try to protect students but in the moment we may also decide to run for our lives. Either option is fine. There's no wrong choice in these situations.
We talked a lot about ways to get the crew and people backstage out safely if a shooter was in the
house, which in our spaces seems fairly easy to do. But unfortunately, this means leaving the people in the
house to fend for themselves. About the only thing I can come up with to do to help the
house would be to make some sort of an announcement to fight back, but this would mean making the booth a target and giving up precious seconds to get my crew out safely. So clearly it's a decision that can only be made in the moment.
If there was a shooter nearby on campus but not in the theater we talked about not just locking the doors but finding ways to secure them beyond just the lock. For example use a belt or rope to tie the doors (or the door closers up above) together to make it harder to get in. Perhaps having some sort of a chain nearby with hooks in the door making it easier to permanently secure the doors from the inside. Screens to
cover glass windows backstage. Also the officer made the
point that if you are in a lock down situation it's very important to
call 911 and tell the police that you have 400 people safely secured in the theater. This will help them as they are clearing the facility.
As for the next steps, I'm going to follow up with a police officer in my own theater. We will talk about more specific plans for my space. From there I will put together a more detailed plan for how to deal with a shooter emergency. The plan will include discussion of evacuation routes, thoughts on how to make the theater more secure to shelter inside, thoughts on ways to fight back (
stage weights anyone?), plans for what to do if you have 400 agitated non-english speaking adults in a theater and you want to keep them calm and locked down inside, plans for a meet up location for the crew a safe distance away from the theater, and more. Once those plans are complete I will be having staff meetings to train everyone in what we want them to do.
Please share your thoughts and plans here. If something I have said either does or doesn't sound good, please respond and say why. I want to hear what you think. What can we all do to stay safer? Without a drastic change in policy, this is a reality we have to live in for the foreseeable future. The most important thing we can do is plan our courses of action. The more of these conversations we have, the more we plan, the better prepared we will be mentally if the situation ever does arise.