BUTLER TWP — Any action taken to disrupt or to stop a shooter is better than doing nothing at all.

That was one of the messages delivered Thursday at a training session about how to deal with an active shooter in a school or a business.

The program was at Butler County Community College Thursday and today for members of law enforcement and the public.

It was taught by Sgt. Tony Castillo of the police department of Oregon, Ohio, who has a certification in ALICE training, a strategy devised in recent years by the ALICE Training Institute to educate civilians on how to handle and survive an active shooter emergency. Castillo has been leading ALICE training programs since 2011.

Castillo taught the more than 30 attendees about the five principles of the training: Alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate.

For ALICE, the counter and evacuate steps are the most proactive and can minimize the situation, especially in the crucial moments before law enforcement arrive. In many situations, the actual shooting can be over before law enforcement can involve themselves, he said.

“What most people don’t understand is that valuable minutes go by,” he said.

In those minutes, the public often can make the biggest difference by proactively attacking, even if their skills are not the same as law enforcement officers, Castillo stressed.

“I’ve had people tell me, ‘I can’t do that,’” Castillo said during the training. “OK, so what can you do?”

That’s what the counter philosophy is about, focusing on age-appropriate, skill-appropriate ways to distract a shooter. The counter philosophy does not depend on fighting, he said.

While that strategy is only taught to students in fifth grade and higher, students in a classroom can swarm the shooter by latching themselves around the person’s limbs, adding excess weight and making it nearly impossible for the shooter to move.

Even simple tasks like throwing books or chairs at an attacker can interrupt his shooting process or stop it altogether, Castillo said.

“Anything beats nothing,” he reminded the classroom.

When civilians are taught to swarm in those minutes before emergency officials arrive, they can bring the shooter to the ground and hold him in place.

Castillo noted many students will ask unusual questions about this action.

“They ask, ‘what happens if I hurt them?’” Castillo said. “Then you hurt them. It doesn’t matter. ‘What if they can’t breathe?’ Then they can’t breathe.”

Following this swarm stage in the counter move, one person can disarm the shooter quite easily by pulling the gun straight down, toward the ground, out the person’s hands.

But always check for a second weapon, Castillo said multiple times.

“Be prepared for the second weapon,” he said because more often than not, there will be at least two weapons on the shooter.

These weapons are to be put immediately in a garbage can and then given to a person of authority like a teacher or principal at a school. The garbage can is used so that first responders do not mistake a person holding a gun for the shooter, Castillo said.

When first responders are handed a garbage can, they’ll know what is inside, he said.

Another helpful tool in the classroom could be a can of wasp spray, which can usually spray up to 25 feet, Castillo said. It’s a great way to distract and surprise a shooter, by spraying him in the face.

A fire extinguisher also could serve double-duty, first as a distraction like the wasp spray and second as a heavy item to hit the shooter.

During the scenario portion of the training, Castillo made the attendees follow a lockdown-only approach.

This symbolizes what many schools do, especially since doors typically can’t even lock, only close, he said.

During the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, none of the classroom doors locked. That left people feeling “helpless,” “powerless,” and “like sitting ducks,” they said.

“By human nature, (doing nothing) doesn’t feel right,” Castillo said in response to the uneasiness about the lockdown scenario.

The simple lockdown scenario also led to the highest number of shots fired than any of the other Alice-inspired scenarios on Thursday afternoon.

“This demonstrates why we can no longer do lockdown response,” Castillo told the attendees. “How many of you thought to call 911 while you were just sitting there?”

Not one person.

That’s because the first instinct for many people is self-preservation, and then calling the police, Castillo said.

“(Calling the police) is just not the first thing people think of,” he said. “They’re thinking about self-preservation. So let’s give them the tools for that.”

Ultimately, the ALICE program is one of proactive empowerment, according to Castillo, and with the frequency of active shooter situations increasing, ALICE has become the standard of training.

Not only is ALICE the standard, it also works well in schools by tailoring training for different age groups, according to Castillo.

However, schools are not the only places that can benefit from this training. The ALICE strategy also is used in workplaces, churches and hospitals.

Of the more than 30 who attended, about half were from school districts and workplaces across the region.

Two directors from the Butler County Children’s Center attended, according to Steve Green, chief executive officer of the center. Those two will now train the remainder of the staff, who teach in pre-kindergarten programs across the county.

Three BC3 police officers attended, according to Brian Henry, a BC3 security officer. Those three will work to train the college’s staff and faculty, he said.

In addition, Regina Hiler, principal of the Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School, plans to use her new knowledge to update the school’s safety and evacuation plans, she said.

The ALICE Training Institute has educated more than 1 million people in all 50 states.