Student-produced safety video shows what to do during an active shooter threat

At Dartmouth schools, students are learning what to do in an emergency with a new video produced by their peers. 

Dartmouth High’s video production program has published a ten-minute school safety video featuring instructions and demonstrations of the district’s ALICE emergency protocol. 

ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. It is a system of tiered responses the school district adopted for use in all of its schools. It provides flexible options to use in an ever-changing emergency situation. 

“In today’s day in age, school safety has to be at the forefront of everyone’s minds,” said Dartmouth High Principal Ross Thibault. “We can’t take anything for granted. While we think it’s unlikely we’d ever have to enact the ALICE principles, we have to be prepared to do so if necessary.” 

Previously, every Dartmouth High School student watched a demonstration video produced by the Waltham Police Department during high school orientation. 

“We wanted to have a resource to help prepare students that looked familiar to them, that they could connect with,” Thibault said. 

Thibault approached video production teacher Robert Perrotti about producing a safety training video in-house, which received a positive response. 

Perrotti involved media production students at all levels with the project, and worked with School Resource Officer Rick Pacheco, administrators, and school Safety Committee members to come up with topics and scenarios that needed to be included in the project. 

All of the information presented in the video was taken directly from ALICE’s website and guides. 

“Students separated into five groups, and had to produce each separate piece of [ALICE] as a group,” Perrotti said. 

Students came up with consistent graphics across each segment, re-enactments, and used their own cell phones to shoot each segment across the school. 

At the start of the school year, the student body was introduced to ALICE with the video. 

“I think the video was well received by our students,” Perrotti said. “It does a very nice job of summarizing the key information we want students to be prepared to act on should we ever have a real world emergency.” 

Thibault said other school districts across the state have also made requests to use the video in classrooms as well. 

“It’s always nice to be able to collaborate with other schools and show the great work our students do here at Dartmouth High School,” Thibault noted.