The Revere school district has decided to adapt a new active shooter program Run, Hide, and Fight to simplify the original program A.L.I.C.E..

The new Run, Hide, Fight program involves three simple choices to make the high stress situation of an active shooter appear less complicated. The most desired choice is to run, the next choice would be to hide, and the last choice is to fight.

District Resource Officer Scott Dressler helped institute the program and presented the idea to the Richfield and Bath Police Departments, which was then approved by the board of education. He first saw the program from the State of Houston Department of Transportation.

“[The State of Houston Department of Transportation] made an active shooter situation video called Run, Hide and Fight. We saw that video and just fell in love with the program,” Dressler said.

Superintendent Dr. Matthew Montgomery supported this new program. The Run, Hide, Fight program is much simpler than the previous program A.L.I.C.E. (which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate), and the main difference is the branding. Montgomery explained why this method makes more sense for Revere.

“It’s like stop, drop, and roll. People can remember three things. If you’re on fire, this is what you do.If someone is chasing you with a gun, this is what you do,” Montgomery said.

Assistant Chief of the Richfield Police Department Paul Fister explained that being in the active shooter situation is similar to “tunnel vision.”

“We have a thing called tunnel vision. In law-enforcement it’s like when you’re driving and the faster you drive [the harder it is to] see all the scenery around you’re more focused on the road. When you’re driving really fast, you really need to concentrate on what’s ahead of you. The best way to describe it is a couple ideas, run, hide and fight,” Fister said.

Dressler explained that during a situation with an active shooter, it is best to do what the student feels most comfortable with, and to remain as calm as possible.

“The key with any situation is just to remain calm and to listen for instructions, and you’ll never be second-guessed on anything you do. If your teacher or you guys [student] decide to run and that wasn’t the right decision at the time, just go with your gut instinct of what you see, what you hear or the information given to you,” Dressler said.

With lockdown drills every few months, Dressler has decided to slowly implement the program to ease students and staff’s stress during a pandemic.

“We will eventually [use the program] .With the pandemic and with us just rolling this out this year, we want to take it super slow. We don’t want to make anybody anxious. We don’t want to scare anybody, so we’re going really slow,” Dressler said.

To alert the police if there is an intruder, students and staff use panic buttons, and selective staff also have radios. Montgomery explained how these options work.

“There are lock down buttons throughout the building that sound text messages and automatic phone calls to key personnel including the police. There [are also] emergency radios, they’re called M.A.R.C. radios, you just push the button, and you’re right at the dispatch center,” Montgomery said.

There are two posters in every classroom of the buildings with information in case of an active shooter, and the Revere High School film class will be presenting a video to the schools explaining the choices more in depth later this year.