Friday, September 20, 2019
Volume 110 Issue 1
New violent incident procedure introduced to students, faculty As result of increasing gun violence in high schools across the United States, LT adopts new strategy to deal with threats
can take time to implement a change like this. The official decision to switch over to the ALICE training method was made last fall. “When Parkland happened, it sort of prompted schools to think about it by Olivia Janik in a different way,” Waterman said. Last winter, LT sent Brown, along with SC associate principal @livjanik Shanna Lewis and the student resource officers to be trained On Tuesday, Aug. 27, Zach Patrick ‘20 felt a rush of adrenaline by ALICE at a conference with other schools. The four of them when North Campus associate principal Kevin Brown’s voice rang spent the next six months devising a plan to train the faculty over the announcement system during second period. Even though from what they were taught, he said. The faculty training, he knew it was a drill, Patrick told himself, “It’s go time” and which took place shortly after the 2018-2019 school year ended, rushed into action, barricading the door to his Spanish classfocused on sharing statistics and scenarios with the teachers to room. best prepare them for a violent incident. “It sucks and it’s a terrible situation we’re in, but even “We took them through some common misconthough it is we need to develop a better procedure, we can’t ceptions, versus what is the reality,” Brown said. just sit in the corner and pray something doesn’t happen,” Pat“And from that we went through scenarios.” rick said. Following the three scenarios that were run This past summer, LT joined more than 5,000 school disin early June, the faculty regrouped to reflect tricts across the United States that use ALICE training in and give feedback. The faculty reported that case of a violent incident. ALICE stands for Alert, Lockthey felt better prepared to protect the kids down, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. It was started 20 after the ALICE training, Brown said. years ago by law enforcement officer Greg Crane, “The staff had some real concerns as a result of the Columbine High School shooting. before the training,” Brown said. “But “[ALICE is] an options based approach that they left feeling like this was a much allows students and staff to be more prepared more positive direction for our student when responding to a violent critical inci[body].” dent,” LTHS principal Dr. Brian WaterOne example of a misconception man said. that the training attempted to clear School officials first started looking up was the possibility of a second into changing LT’s violent incident attacker in a violent critical inciprocedures two years ago after the dent, Brown said. Historical data shooting in Parkland, Fla., Watershows that 98% of incidents are man said. But, at a large school, perpetrated by a single person. with a two-campus system, it In this photo illustration, LION recreates a barricade similar to those practiced in the ALICE drill (Voytovich/LION). continued on pg. 4
Nine ACE members resign from club Sponsor shares insight about resignations; ACE members were contacted, declined comment by Diane Makovic @dmakovic8
High School vs. Open up to pg. 16 to read a review of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams (see pg. 13-15 for more)
The Athletes Committed to Excellence (ACE) group at LT is smaller than in years past, sponsor Bradley Anderson said. Only 10 members remain including two seniors and eight juniors after nine members resigned. “As much as it was sad for me, I thought that was an incredibly mature response because sometimes leaders have to sacrifice for the greater good,” Anderson said. “Students who resigned will forgo a year of leadership training, a year of leadership experiences and something pretty great on their résumé because they wanted to see the club continue for future students, and so that we could move forward as a group. And to me that’s what authentic leadership looks like: sometimes you have to make tough decisions for the greater good.” At the end of the 2018-2019 school year, Anderson received four separate reports without names or evidence that members of ACE were going to parties or drinking, he said. At their annual summer leadership camp, Anderson told the group that if the reports were true, some members would need to resign due to violating the club’s mission statement. While nine members resigned, LION does by no means insinuate that the members that resigned were engaging in drinking alcohol or attending parties where alcohol was present. “I told all of them about [the reports], and I said ‘If this is true, some of you need to resign or I will have to end my involvement as the sponsor of ACE,’” Anderson said. “Our mission statement says we aspire to
Members of ACE participate in last year’s All School Assembly (Breen/LION).
unite and lead the student body toward lives of excellence through positive, healthy choices. We’re out here trying to tell people ‘hey there’s a healthier, more positive choice for how you can live your life,’ and if we’re not doing that in our own lives, then it’s not going to have the impact on the school that it should.” In the past, the ACE club at LT has provided leadership training for a select group of athletic leaders, who spread a message of healthy living continued on pg. 4
Look here for a preview of our first issue Notice anything different? Open up to pg. 2 and 3 to read all about the changes made at school.
Drop your best two line freestyle...or just read some in the grid on pg. 7.
Take a look at pg. 5 and 6 to see what your classmates accomplished this past summer.
North Campus
Swipe right to pg. 8 to see a debate on the effectiveness of social media activism.
Oregon just passed a law allowing students to take mental health days. Read our staff’s opinion about it on pg. 9.
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LT’s legendary swim coach has returned. Read about Coach Walker on pg. 10.
Our sports editor has some strong feelings about Da Bears. Read his take on pg. 11.
It’s comeback season for LT football: find out more on pg. 12
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