St. Joseph Academy (SJA) has become an ALICE certified organization to better prepare its students and staff to prevent, mitigate, respond to, and recover from a violent critical incident.

SJA successfully met the requirements of the ALICE Training Institute’s Certified Organization program in active shooter response preparedness and received its certification on May 27, 2020. ALICE empowers people to make good survival decisions should an attack occur and has worked with more than 5,000 education districts in the United States.

Previously, SJA employees completed online and live trainings. The live trainings involved SJA employees practicing how to respond to an active shooter entering the building. Employees learned how to lockdown the building, fight the attacker, and flee the scene in a safe manner. Assisting with the training were two volunteers who served as the armed intruders. No students were in the building at the time of the training. Milwaukee Police Officers were onsite to observe how SJA could improve its emergency operating procedures.

The training was an invaluable resource for SJA staff. The methods learned – Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate – could potentially save lives. Dr. Tabia Jones, President/CEO of SJA, highly recommends the training to other educational institutions, as well as businesses, houses of worship, and any other organizations.

“Now that SJA is certified, I know that our staff is better equipped and empowered to make life-saving decisions for our most precious gifts (our students),” she said.