Numbers and responses

The National Center for Education Statistics lists 11 homicides of students ages 5 to 18 on school grounds nationwide for 2010-11, the most recent data available.

A database of active-shooter events nationwide — defined as an individual actively engaged in killing people in a confined and populated area — from 2000 to 2012 was compiled by the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center (ALERRT) at Texas State University.

The database lists 110 events, which occurred at a rate of about five per year un- til 2008, after which they increased to about 16 per year.

Of the 110 events, 29 percent occurred at a school or college.

But the especially horrific nature of school shootings, such as the 13 killed at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 and 26 killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012, is spurring action considered necessary by some and controversial by others.

Programs to train teachers and students to fight back have been around for a few years. Greg Crane, a former police officer and SWAT team member in Texas, created the ALICE Training Institute in 2000 after the Columbine killings.

Crane said interest skyrocketed after Sandy Hook.

ALICE is an acronym for “alert,” “lockdown,” “inform,” “counter” and “evacuate.” Crane said the list of actions is not in order of importance, because “evacuate” is the preferred method. But he stresses that children can be taught what to do in age-appropriate ways.

A different approach

Crane, who described his school shooting protocol at a national conference of schoolresource officers in California this month, said the most controversial part of his procedure is “counter.”

“It doesn’t necessarily mean fight back, but don’t