Baltimore County Public Schools staff and students will be trained this fall in a new protocol for responding to the unlikely event of an active assailant. Traditional responses to this type of incident have been to lock down and wait for the police to arrive. Case studies of several active assailant incidents have shown that using only this response resulted in an increase in casualties. Baltimore County Public Schools in partnership with the Baltimore County Police Department is adopting the option-based “ALICE” response protocol to assist those in harm’s way should this type of incident occur. Individuals would respond based on information that they have at hand regarding the situation. ALICE stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter, and evacuate. These measures provide the knowledge and skills needed to make the best decisions available for the safety of students, staff, and visitors.