Perry school district staff, local law enforcement and emergency personnel are practicing their emergency response plans.

An ALICE training exercise is scheduled to take place today.

ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate, it’s a system that was put together in the wake of tragedies such as the Sandy Hook shooting to help make sure school staff and students are prepared if an emergency were to happen.

Perry Police Chief Eric Vaughn, school resource officer Pat Jans, along with school district buildings and grounds supervisor and firefighter Kevin McLaughlin attended ALICE training last year and Superintendent Lynn Ubben says this is an effort to make sure the district is all on the same page because recommendations have changed over the years. She says initially they used to think the best thing to do was just lock down and try to hide, but in many situations it’s best to try and safely evacuate.

Once the training is completed, Ubben says staff will then decide how to educate students and which groups need to know the procedures.