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| | Author | Messages | |
DesertNewbie
Posts:531
 | | 09/15/2007 10:17 AM |
 Alert | This maybe should be in the Politics forum, but I choose to place it here where more people interested in our schools and education post.
Last week, Glenn Beck did a series of reports on a suspected new terror plan that gives me great concern, because it all seems very logical if you think about it from the standpoint of terrorists. It would certainly be as effective as they would desire.
I get daily emails to keep me posted when I miss his show, which I did most of last week due to being out of the state for business. I will copy paste the contents of some of my email alerts here.
Discuss.
A Note from Glenn:
It's the day that Americans are killed on an unprecedented scale. It's the day that no one, not even our children sitting in their classrooms at school, are safe. It's the day that seemingly isolated incidents all converge into the greatest threat this country has ever experienced or imagined. It's the day that the Islamist jihad against the West begins in earnest. It's "The Perfect Day" - and it's only perfect if you're a terrorist.
All this week on Headline News we are focusing on one part of The Perfect Day theory: the threat of massive, coordinated attacks against our schools and school buses. Last night on television, Lt. Col. Joe Ruffini, a counterterrorism expert, told us about some of the evidence and suspicious incidents that have occurred recently - both overseas and right here in America. Former FBI Special Agent Don Clark lent his credibility and experience to the threat and helped explain the fine line that government officials must walk between panic and preparation.
I've asked both Lt. Colonel Ruffini and Agent Clark to write about any thoughts on this threat that we didn't get to cover on television, and their reports are included in this newsletter. In tonight's episode, we'll reveal what really happened during the Beslan school siege and tomorrow's newsletter report, from John Giduck, author of Terror at Beslan, is an absolute must-read.
Americans Can Handle the Truth
By Lieutenant Colonel Joe Ruffini, U.S. Army (Ret)
Glenn Beck is right on the money: America must acknowledge, prepare for, and, most importantly, work together to prevent Al Qaeda attacks against our schools.
Knowledge is power - power to be a more informed citizen, power to be a more enlightened voter, and power to protect our communities and our schools. Sometimes the information is hard to swallow, and sometimes it's downright frightening -but how can we be prepared without it?
We can't. That's why it's so important that federal and state officials start figuring out a way to keep this nation adequately informed. In their (often times noble) efforts to keep us from becoming alarmed, they are encouraging complacency. But we cannot allow that to happen; we must remain vigilant.
Based on my years of experience in conducting terror awareness seminars for communities, law enforcement agencies, and school officials, I can assure you that everyday Americans CAN handle the truth. I give it to my audiences straight, and they keep asking for more. In fact, the two comments I hear back the most are, "Why aren't we hearing this information from our officials?" and "Where can I learn more?"
Remember, denial has never and will never be a strategy for victory.
(Lt. Col. Ruffini is a counterterrorism expert and the author of When Terror Comes to Main Street: A Citizens' Guide to Terror Awareness, Preparedness, and Prevention. He's also the President and Founder of JPR & Associates, LLC. )
Our Schools: The Ultimate Soft Target
By Fmr. FBI Special Agent Don Clark
Terrorist don't just target big buildings, airports, refineries or ship channels. They also target something very near and dear to our hearts and souls: our children.
Most of us understand that terrorists' primary objective is to instill fear in each and every one of us. Fear makes everything else possible. What better way to achieve that goal than to attack our schools and murder our children?
A plot that shocking would, without question, strike fear into all of our hearts. No one, from the farmer in Wisconsin to the banker in Manhattan would feel safe anymore.
Remember Columbine? That was kids killing kids, yet the entire nation was truly stunned and saddened. Can you imagine how we would feel if that attack had been carried out by a terrorist organization? The rage and bloodlust would be palpable.
No one, including me, wants to think about that, but to help minimize the chance of it ever happening we need to ensure that we treat schools with the same level of caution that we treat more obvious targets, like airports and cargo ports. We also need to start employing top priority screening of employees at all levels, from professors to grounds keepers.
There are also other practical things we can do to make terrorists think twice about choosing our community. All school facilities should be secured with cameras and other technical equipment to alert authorities immediately in case of an attack. School districts should also institute TIP LINES to seek leads and information.
Finally, one of the most important things that local school districts can do is ensure that their police departments are connected with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security so that they continuously receive the latest information relating to any school threats.
Don't leave it up to others to make sure that your town is ready; the burden for preparing lies with each and every one of us. And remember: simply refusing to believe that schools are a terrorist target does not make it so.
(Former FBI Special Agent Don Clark led the investigation after the first World Trade Center attack. He recommends the website www.counterterrorismblog.org as a great resource for staying up to date with the threats that veteran intelligence officials are most concerned about.)
Lessons from Beslan
By John Giduck
America is a nation at war, and some of the battles in that war will be fought on American soil. Thus, it is incumbent upon every American to not only educate themselves, but prepare for the types of attacks we are likely to see. But it's difficult to prepare when one of the most likely targets is hardly ever talked about publicly.
There are two basic categories of terror attacks: the first, called "Decimation Assaults," is where terrorists plant bombs or use suicide-homicide bombers. Because these are so easy to execute, they are the more frequently used type of attack - but their impact is minimal because the body counts and are usually pretty low.
The more preferred, but more difficult to accomplish, attack is the "Mass Hostage Siege." Terrorists know that when they take hundreds of innocent people hostage and hold them for days they are really holding an entire nation hostage. By doing that they attract the attention of the news media, which helps them to accomplish their real goal, which is to spread terror as far and as wide as possible. It's the psychological impact that's most important, and nothing is better at promoting that than a Mass Hostage Siege, especially one that involves innocent children.
To understand how credible the threat is, we need only to look at the achievements of so many terror groups. In the first six months of 2006, 204 schools were attacked in Afghanistan. Three of them were attacked in two days in the first week of July 2007. Between 1984 and 1994 more than 300 schools were attacked in Turkey.
The number of school attacks are rising in places like Pakistan, Iraq, Indonesia and Thailand as well. A new girls' school in Iraq was found to have dozens of bombs hidden in the floor and walls and, just two weeks ago, a school was targeted in Great Britain. I also bet you never heard that the backup plan for the Madrid train bombers was a school attack.
But, despite all of these incidents, Beslan was the terrorists' best case scenario - which means that it is our worst case scenario. So what is the likelihood of it happening here? Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders have publicly stated that before this jihad is over they will see to the deaths of 4 million Americans, including 2 million American children. After several attacks involving children in Russia he said that what he was doing in Russia he would do to America. The head of the Chechen terrorists, Shamil Basayev, made a similar pledge before his death at the hands of Russian Special Forces. Afghan terror camp training tapes depict jihadists attacking students in a school, issuing instructions in English.
In addition, emergency response plans of numerous schools have been found in the hands of people who should not have them and intelligence gathering of schools and school facilities has been occurring in places like Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Texas, Florida, Virginia and California for some time now. People with no affiliation to any school have been crossing the border from Canada attempting to buy school buses, and buses in other locations, like Houston, have been stolen.
These are but a very few of the incidents occurring in America today, yet the schools, parents and citizens of our country refuse to acknowledge the threat, or to allow those we turn to for protection - our police - to be properly equipped, armed, informed, and trained for such an event.
There is a Kliebold and Harris in every single school who has at least planned to outdo Columbine. There is a Cho at every college who would love to get the same kind of publicity. There are even the Morrisons and Robertses from the Bailey, CO and Nickel Mines, PA attacks who are just waiting to exact their own revenge. And in every state across this country there are al Qaeda related groups that are, at a minimum, putting together information and plans to attack a school. No matter what the threat, the defenders of those schools are all the same: American police departments.
If Beslan is the worst thing that could possibly happen to our children, then it is incumbent upon our nation to be prepared for it. If we're fortunate enough that Beslan does not ever come to pass, our preparation will not have been in vein as we will be so much better prepared to respond to any other threat to our children and the supposedly safe places they happily trundle off to every day.
(John Giduck is the author of Terror at Beslan: A Russian Tragedy with Lessons for America's Schools.)
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| | DesertNewbie
Posts:531
| | 09/15/2007 10:20 AM |
Alert | (continued email updates)
Can We Win?
By Bernard Kerik
In a recent video message, Osama bin Laden, is heard calling for a caravan of martyrs to follow in the footsteps of the 9/11 suicide hijackers-which proves that he still dreams of spectacular attacks against the west and the American people.
Fortunately, many of the lessons we learned from 9/11 have helped prevent similar attacks on U.S. soil so far, but the bad news is that I strongly believe that Bin Laden's definition of "spectacular" has changed; it doesn't have to mean jumbo jets into skyscrapers, a nuclear device at a port of entry or multiple oil refinery explosions anymore. The attacks we've seen in London, Madrid, Glasgow and Denmark, along with the foiled attacks against western targets around the world demonstrate that. They've all focused on easier, softer targets and that's lead many Americans to believe that "spectacular" attacks are no longer what they crave.
But that is wrong...dead wrong.
Imagine this: it's the morning of September 11, 2001. The 19 hijackers split up into four groups just as they did, except this time they don't board four jetliners bound for California. Instead, each group travels to a different part of the country-perhaps small towns in Pennsylvania, Florida, Colorado and California. They each enter an elementary school or junior high school and they simultaneously begin a murderous rampage just as Islamic fundamentalists did in Beslan on September 1, 2004 (a massacre that ended with 330 dead, including at least 170 children).
Or, imagine that instead of schools the groups strap themselves with explosives and take over four movie theaters, as they did in Moscow in October, 2002 (a siege that ended with 129 civilians murdered). Or what if it were four tourist locations around the country?
Although far from the enormity of the 9/11 attacks, these attacks would certainly be "spectacular" in their own right. Tourism would come to a stand still, the airline industry would suffer, the stock markets would tank and the economical and emotional damage could be far greater than we suffered in 2001.
Would parents really send their children to school in the days and weeks following an attack (whether or not it even occurred in their town), not knowing where and when the next one might occur? What would happen to employment as at least one parent stays home with the children for weeks or months?
Thanks largely to the Bush administration, we are much better off today than we were on September 10, 2001but until our political leadership unites, we will never defeat the enemy we face. Unfortunately, as our politicians battle and bicker in Washington, Al Qaeda and radical Islam continues its mission.
It's only a matter of time until victory is achieved. The real question is, by whom?
(Bernard Kerik is Chairman of the Kerik Group and was the Police Commissioner of New York City during the 9/11 attacks.)
The Ends Islamist Terrorists Seek
By M. Zuhdi Jasser, MD
The entire goal of Al Qaeda-type monsters is to provoke a reaction from mainstream America by pursuing evil against those who stand in the way of imposing theocracy. These fascists have no value for life other than that it's simply a means to their end of a totalitarian theocratic state. It is their ideology. In their warped view of religion they are God.
These are not the actions of psychopaths. Instead, they are the calculated actions of those seeking power and those afraid of freedom. They know that liberty's greatest weakness is its wide exposure to attacks against noncombatants (i.e., you and me) and the way in which protections against those attacks alter the very liberties we all seek to protect.
The biggest threat to the Islamists gaining power is the free world, especially the Muslims who believe in, practice, and advocate universal religious freedom and secular democracies. In fact, a Muslim manifestation of liberty is the greatest antidote to global jihad and political Islam.
What better way for radical Islamists to destroy their most potent enemy (moderate pro-freedom Muslims) than to sow chaos in the belly of America and stimulate a visceral reaction like no other? The Islamists know that their ideas are oppressive and far less appealing to Muslims and non-Muslims alike than things like freedom and liberty. Thus, their strategy is to put moderates on the defensive so that their rational ideas are lost in the din of terror.
An attack on our schools would do just that. The more barbaric and grizzly the attack, and the more they can get Americans to associate it with Muslims and Islam, the more possible it is that they fuel a hateful response from some Americans. That would leave moderate Muslims' quest to defeat political Islam lost in the chaos of a divided America.
We witnessed just such a visceral hate crime here in Phoenix after 9/11 when a Sikh man, Balbir Singh, was murdered for appearing to be Muslim. And that's why this very discussion is so vital; if we know that the primary goal of our enemy is to enrage our citizenry against Muslims and Islam then we can inoculate ourselves against it. Al Qaeda's aim is to enrage and get non-Muslims to do their dirty work of targeting moderate Muslims for them-and we must not give that to them.
If American Muslims declare open war against Al Qaeda, Americans will rush to defend our mosques rather than allow them to be burned. Otherwise, with rage and vengeance, the freedoms so protected by our Constitution will quickly dissipate into a nation gripped by fear and hate of the "other." And that is the ultimate goal of such horrific acts: to create a reaction which ultimately destroys the very fabric of our nation-the trust of one another, under God, under our Constitution. The children they would kill in schools on this "Perfect Day" would be a utilitarian mechanism (ends justifying the means) to achieve the destruction of the "American" way of life.
It is vitally important for Americans to see that, for most Muslims, being Muslim is not about preserving our mosques and our own rights; it is first about preserving the rights and freedoms of all Americans against the jihadists. But the longer Muslims stay silent against jihadism the greater chance the next incident like this Perfect Day scenario will have the impact the militants actually seek.
(M. Zuhdi Jasser is the founder and Chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix Arizona. He is a former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, a physician in private practice, and a community activist.)
AWARE AND PREPARED, NOT SCARED!
By Kenneth Trump
Fear is reduced by education, communication, and preparation-not by sticking our heads in the sand.
Before we can talk about specific steps to prepare kids, families, and educators, we first have to prepare ourselves mentally by acknowledging (in a non-alarmist, pragmatic manner) that a terror attack on an American school is not an unrealistic possibility.
We cannot change the climate if we do not change the conversation. Most public officials inside the D.C. Beltway have publicly taken a "downplay, deny, and deflect" position about this threat for fear of creating panic, but how can we prepare for something if no one will talk about it?
Below is some practical advice, directed to three distinct groups: parents, children, and school officials. Following these steps will put your family and your school way ahead of the pack when it comes to preparedness.
Tips for Parents
1. Create a family plan. Simple steps can make a difference: Identify a long distance family member for everyone to call if the family is separated. Identify neighborhood and distant family reunification locations and create a "code word" known only to your family members.
2. Have age and developmentally-appropriate communications with your kids. Be honest and open. Focus on facts and context. Reassure them of measures that adults have taken to keep them safe. Reduce fear of the unknown by teaching kids what to do.
3. Ask your kids where they see weaknesses and how they would improve security at their schools.
4. Talk with school leaders to make sure they have active crisis plans, not just plans sitting on shelves collecting dust. Ask probing questions to make sure they are implementing best practices in school emergency planning, including those listed below.
5. Support school administrators in their safety efforts. Follow security procedures set by schools-the rules apply to everyone. Volunteer for safety and crisis committees. Help put together parent awareness presentations on school security and emergency preparedness. Support principals and boards that do the right thing.
Tips for Children
1. Know your family plan.
2. Know what school officials need you to do in a crisis to keep you safe.
3. Take your school's drills, such as lockdowns and evacuations, and your family's crisis plans seriously.
4. If you have questions, ask them. If you have ideas and suggestions, share them!
Tips for Schools
1. Have an active, updated emergency plan. Most schools have crisis plans and crisis teams on paper, but fewer schools involve first responders in developing the plan contents, updating their plans at least annually, and requiring crisis teams to meet regularly. Make school emergency planning and safety a part of your school's culture.
2. Practice drills such as lockdowns and evacuations. Participate in tabletop exercises with hypothetical scenarios with first responders and other community partners to make sure school crisis plans written on paper may work in a real emergency.
3. Train teachers and support staff on crime prevention, security, and emergency preparedness best practices, and on their school's specific crisis guidelines.
4. Improve physical security measures and crime prevention policies. Have security assessments conducted by specialists knowledgeable in professional security best practices.
5. Conduct thorough background checks for all school employees. Most schools do the minimal criminal history checks of select employees required by their state laws. Fewer do comprehensive background investigations that include criminal history checks along with examinations of work histories and validation of educational credentials.
6. Work closely with public safety officials. Meet at least annually to review and update school plans. Make sure police and fire officials have updated floor plans of the school. Invite police to use school facilities after-hours or on weekends to train for active shooter and other tactical operations.
Our public officials need to know that we, as Americans, recognize how serious the potential threat of terrorism in our schools really is. Take just 10 minutes today or tomorrow to call your Congressman and Senators' offices to let them know that you want federal homeland security policy and funding to better include our nation's schools. Our elected officials need to know that they will be held accountable if something happens while they continue to deny the threat and fail to include our schools on the list of potential terror targets.
(Kenneth S. Trump, M.P.A. is President of the National School Safety and Security Services. For additional information and resources, visit www.schoolsecurity.org.)
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| | CODEBLEU
Posts:202
| | 09/15/2007 10:57 AM |
Alert | Newbie,
Most people who take security in this country seriously already know about soft targets. Posting them here only provides ideas to the Whackos. I would urge you to delete this post or have one of the administers do it for you if your unable.
I really find statements in the news and in public forums along these lines to be a Breach of National Security. I know that sounds pretty strong but I really do take the security and safety of our country very seriously as Im sure you do too.
If you have something like this to share with fellow Americans then please do it privately.
For Ken Trump security is a business. For our country its all we have between us and them.
Lets not expose ourselves publicly. Please take the time to remove it.
Thank you,
Commander Codebleu
KENNETH S. TRUMP, M.P.A., is President of National School Safety and Security Services, a Cleveland-based national consulting firm specializing in school security and emergency preparedness training, school security assessments, school emergency planning consultations, and related school safety and crisis consulting services. Ken is one of the nation’s leading school safety experts and has 25 years of front-line public and private urban, suburban, and rural school security experience working with school and safety officials from all 50 states and Canada..
Ken served as founder and supervisor of the nationally-recognized Youth Gang Unit for the school safety division of the Cleveland City Schools, and as a suburban Cleveland school security director. He also served as assistant director of a federal funded anti-gang task force for three Cleveland suburbs.
Ken is author of the 1998 best-selling book, Practical School Security: Basic Guidelines for Safe and Secure Schools (Corwin Press), and over 40 articles on school security and crisis issues. His book, Classroom Killers? Hallway Hostages
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| | DesertNewbie
Posts:531
| | 09/15/2007 11:38 AM |
Alert | 1) I cannot delete the post. Regular users are only able to edit...not remove (unless I take it down to just a period like I have other posts I have edited trying not to lose the formatting).
2) I don't believe posting this here, when it's readily available on Beck's website, is a breach of anyone's security. There are no "how to terrorize a school" step-by-step instructions listed.
3) The tips for preparedness are important for all to know, and as stated above, sticking your head in the sand isn't a solution. The "Whackos", as you call them, are going to do what they're going to do. It's vital that Americans are prepared. Using your logic, we can't talk about ways to combat, prevent or recover from terrorism, because discussion fuels the terroristic fires?
I would like to read the thoughts of others about the likelihood of this happening...not just the talking heads on Headline News.
I, for one, am concerned that school buses are being stolen in Texas and we aren't being told. I am concerned that American school emergency plans are readily available through DES and are being found downloaded and burned to CDs or disks, in the hands of known terrorists. | | | |
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| | CODEBLEU
Posts:202
| | 09/15/2007 12:21 PM |
Alert | Newbie,
Private Security Companies are in business to make money. They entice you to do business with them by putting fear in you. Our government has a protocol for handling these matters and whether or not you agree with our government or not on these matters is an entirely different discussion.
Posting potential targets by one idiot does not give you carte blanche do continue repeating the same inexcusable behaviior with the excuse that Joe Smuck, who is making money on "FEAR", has already made the information public.
I can only advise you as a fellow US Citizen (assuming you are a citizen of the USA) is that you should really do your level best to have this information removed immeaditely in the interest of safety. You are not providing anything of value for our country, community, or children by speaking publicly on the internet about such matters.
If its any consolation, I really believe that, FOX News, CNBC, CBS, NBC and other news medias in our Free Country cross the line on a daily basis as to what the public really needs to know. There comes a point when the safety of our country is more important then our First Right Ammendmants. If you really want to discuss the potential levels of threat our country faces then contact your nearest FBI AGENT and set up an appointment.
Please just do our small communtiy and our country for that matter a favor and dont use all of our children for your own source of "Dangerous Terrorist Gossip".
Once again, Thank you for your serious consideration of such a sensitive matter.
Commander Codebleu
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| | DesertNewbie
Posts:531
| | 09/15/2007 12:34 PM |
Alert | I'm not removing the thread.
I'm not going to agree that this thread breaches security or puts Maricopa children in any more or less danger than already existed.
There is nothing wrong with information that makes us think about and prepare for things we wouldn't ordinarily think about or prepare for, due to being uneducated on the subject.
Move on.
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|  | CODEBLEU
Posts:202
| | 09/15/2007 1:49 PM |
Alert | You really just dont get it do you! Education on all levels is truly lost upon you. I guess you have never worked in a safety sensitive environment where your very safety and "LIFE" requires that your brethern and sister watch your back. When were watching each others backs we dont talk about strategy in public for the enemy to gather ideas.
Many people that do this in our society are truly RED COATS who have traded in their allegiance for prosperity. You on the other hand seem to be trading in your allegiance for pure good ole gossip/entertainment on a Saturday Afternoon. ----Move On? How about you just GET LOST, like in moving back to what ever rock you crawled our from under.
I will not entertain this woman anymore. She has truly lost all sense of scruples. I suggest that everyone joins me in BOYCOTTING NEWBIEs THREAD. Our kids deserve it.
Commander Codebleu
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| | DesertNewbie
Posts:531
| | 09/15/2007 1:53 PM |
Alert | Oh for the love of Christ, GET OVER YOURSELF, Blow hard!
Just because I happen to disagree with you on this and won't do as you command...you throw a tantrum.
How can we watch each other's backs if we don't know what we're watching for? Don't answer that. In fact, please, follow your own advice and boycott every post I make. Don't read them. Don't reply to them. Just pretend I don't exist and step away from my space. Yours isn't the opinion I seek. I would rather hear from the intelligent; not the arrogant. | | | |
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| | Chuck
Posts:59
| | 09/15/2007 2:58 PM |
Alert | Does anyone remember who was the capt of the USS Vincennes when it shot down that Iranian airliner over twenty years ago? I assure you someone did because not a year later his family was targeted with a pipe bomb. Where is that family now? What it comes down to is that zealots such as terrorists and assasins are undeterred, have already picked their targets and it is only a matter of time before they succeed.
Do you remember what happened with the pipe bomb? It went off in the van while his wife, a school teacher was on her way to work. So let's take this a step further. No, let's not because it could only lead to hysteria and a mass migration out of Maricopa on the only artery available to hysterical people.
Okay, I digressed to mockery but maybe what I'm trying to say is take this information and use it to increase vigilance. I would mych rather do that than have my govt resort to some of the alternatives being considered... like domestic eavesdropping.
There has been a long time effort to train bus drivers in what to look for that might potentially be terror related. The training is progressing as the funding is available but even such as that makes me worry about a couple things, in particular wrongful or mistaken reporting. Once again, such an effort puts us on the cusp of violations of our basic Constitutional rifghts. security be damned, let it be known that we are a vigilant people and will act as needed to protect our families and our way of life. | | | |
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| | DesertNewbie
Posts:531
| | 09/15/2007 3:12 PM |
Alert | Thank you, Chuck. I agree. Ignorance to the facts won't serve any purpose. Talking about them won't "assist" the terrorists or deter them, but it might help a few to be more aware and potentially spared.
Had we been told of the plans for 9/11, how many of those people on those four planes might have canceled their flight and still be alive today? We'll never know.
I'm not saying we should pull all American kids out of schools because it "might" happen. I'm saying we need to be alert to the fact that this sort of thing could very well be in the plans and take every precaution possible to be prepared for it, so that if it does occur, it has a minimal effect, or better yet...no effect at all because it's thwarted early on. | | | |
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| | Sp.ed.Tchr
Posts:142
| | 09/16/2007 7:51 AM |
Alert | Sorry, but your posts were too long for me to read completely with a 2 year old running around. I think the length may deter many others as well. I suggest changing them to links and posting a brief summary of each article or something so those that are truly interested can read them in their entirety and those that aren't able to, can still get the basic information that you intended them to see.
With that said, I believe that there has been an attempt by schools to tighten security and plan for an attack. I remember the tub of emergency stuff I got shortly after 9/11 attacks. However, I also believe that money is an issue as it always is with schools. There is the level of security we would like to have and the level of security a school can afford to have and maintain.
Here are a couple of things that parents can do to make it easier for staff:
1. Find out what kinds of things are needed by your child's school for emergency kits. Don't get enraged that your child was in lockdown in their classroom and couldn't use the bathroom for 4 hours if you haven't tried to help. Each classroom needs to have a "makeshift bathroom" if they don't already have a real bathroom in order for students to relieve themselves. If we don't have a bucket and a shower curtain, it can't happen. What about water or snacks? There are lots of things each classroom really should have in case of a lockdown or other emergency, but maybe doesn't.
2. Stay in your car and wait for your child to meet you there. Plan ahead of time with your child where you will be and wait there. When 50+ parents are all over campus waiting for their kids to be released, it is difficult for staff to know who should be there and who shouldn't, especially if they didn't check in at the office and get a visitor badge, or did check in and said "I'm not wearing this stupid thing". We don't have airport-like security, but parents could make a difference if they followed this simple suggestion. We have had a "suspicious" person on campus during the middle of the day. They were "suspicious" because they entered a gate that the custodian uses to take out trash and didn't check in at the office. Turns out it was a parent, but we were put in lockdown until the administration was able to find the person and determine that. Don't think that just because your child attends there, you have free reign on campus. It is very important for the safety of all students that you check in at the office and follow the guidelines for visitors.
This is just a start...I am sure your school may have more ideas of ways that you could help or you can come up with your own and check with them to see if it is needed/can be done.
The worst thing we could do is think it could never happen to our kid at their school and do nothing... | | | |
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| | DesertNewbie
Posts:531
| | 09/16/2007 8:33 AM |
Alert | Sp.Ed.Tchr, good suggestions and I especially love the last line.
I didn't post links because one has to be a member of the site to access this information or receive the emails. I didn't think people would want to sign up. They can scan what I copy/pasted as easily as they can scan a website, but I understand what you mean. | | | |
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| | DesertNewbie
Posts:531
| | 09/20/2007 7:46 AM |
Alert | http://www.local6.com/news/14129427/detail.html
Jihad bomb threat postcards mailed to 9 Florida schools (before the Glenn Beck series aired or this thread began).
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| | Chuck
Posts:59
| | 09/20/2007 12:49 PM |
Alert | | I still have to give this a "ho~hum". Yes, it's important to be vigilant and aware of what is happening elsewhere with the thought it could be Maricopa. Fortunately, Maricopa doesn't have nine schools...yet | | | |
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