Believe it or not, there’s a connection between canned food and school violence. According to local news station Alabama 13, Principal Priscella Holley of W.F. Burns Middle School in Valley, AL, sent a letter home to parents asking students to bring in canned food to use in case of school intruders or shooters.
Photo: W.F. Burns Middle School
Students are currently being trained under the ALICE program for active shooter situations, which is an acronym that stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate. The canned goods are part of the “C” in “ALICE,” and are intended for students to throw at an active shooter as a last resort before evacuating the school.
Chambers County Schools Superintendent Dr. Kelli Moore Hodge told WRBL,
This is the ALICE training video aimed at middle school children:
Hodge told WHNT that schools in 30 states are also utilizing ALICE principles, which fit new school safety guidelines issued by the Department of Education in 2013.
At the end of the school year, all leftover canned food will be donated to a local food pantry.
Parent response to the letter has been mixed, but mostly positive. One parent told Alabama’s 13 that she’s more worried that students will use the canned goods to harm other students.
A grandmother of a Burns student told Alabama’s 13,
WHNT reports that Hodge says most negative responses have come from Facebook, from people who don’t have children in the Chambers County Schools district.
[via Alabama’s 13, WRBL, WHNT]