Rotary Spoke 03 20 17

Posted by Frank Smith on Mar 20, 2017

Rotary Meets at Minuteman High School

Brian Tilsdey, Assistant Principal Speaks to Rotary About ALiCE.

March 20^th was a crisp cold day. There was filtered sunlight emanating from a pale blue sky blanketed with wispy cirrus clouds. While snow is still on the ground, it was a nice start to spring. Eighteen Rotarians and two guests gathered at Minuteman High School for a delicious luncheon of salad, potatoes, squash, chicken, turkey and a panoply of desserts.

One of our guests was Ugar Ergun, past president of Istanbul Tesvikiye Rotary Club and currently residing in Lexington. Our other guest was Maryanne Nadeau Ham who will be our Interact contact at Minuteman High School.

The pledge of allegiance was led by PP Jim F, one verse of America by Charlie V and the Invocation by PDG Jack M. The welcome song was also lead by Charlie V and it sounded so good, Charlie chipped in some happy dollars for our performance.

PP Spencer B had happy dollars for his brother joining the Andover Rotary club. PP Dan B fined himself for misremembering the speaker schedule and starting a chain (broken by PP Murry A) of emails with the program committee to solve the imaginary crisis. PP Murry had an excuse for not responding to PP Dan, but it didn’t pass the 4 Way Test, so he paid a fine as well.

PP Spencer B updated us on the NCAA Tournament brackets. The club has 28 brackets and Michelle G is currently in the lead. PP Spencer also informed the club that Comedy Night tickets are now available and we are still looking for people to place ads and donate items for the silent auction.

Raffle donations were made by Arlex Oil, Peoples United Bank and Brookhaven.

Our speaker was Brian Tilsdey, assistant principal at Minuteman High School. He spoke about the ALiCE program that started in Texas and has spread to many school systems around the country. The ALICE program is designed to improve school security and student/faculty safety. ALiCE is an acronym for Alert, Lockdown, Inform,Counter, Evacuate. Students are taught how to be safe in the workplace, school, while driving and using the internet. We all became aware of the heightened security at the school when we had to show are driver’s license and have a personal badge created for us before we could gain entry to the school. As part of the program students and teachers are given instructions on how to secure/lockdown a classroom if necessary and Lexington and Lincoln police have provided training sessions for the faculty and staff in techniques to counter an attacker. Evacuation plans are in place and student have had drills on how to evacuate the school and where to meet after leaving the school. Students and staff are also taught how to profile people who might look suspicious and to point them out to the administration. The program ended with a video created by parents in Sandy Hook NJ, following the horrific school attack in that community. The video pointed out the importance of being aware of your surroundings and to report any signs of suspicious activity and alert the faculty to students who may be planning to do harm. For more information on the ALiCE program, check out this web link: https://www.alicetraining.com/our-program/alice-training/k12-education/

The 50:50 raffle was for $25 and was won by PP Bob S.

PP FS