S.D. school crisis plan is found on disk in Iraq

No threat seen to district; children are safe, police say By Kelly Thornton UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

A man arrested by U.S. authorities in Iraq had a computer disk in his possession containing a public report downloaded from a U.S. Department of Education Web site on crisis planning in school districts, including San Diego Unified.

The man was described as an Iraqi national with connections to terrorism and the insurgency that is fighting U.S. forces in Iraq. Officials in San Diego said the man's intentions were unknown.

San Diego law enforcement officials said there was no indication of any terrorist plot against schools in San Diego or elsewhere in the country. They did not publicly release the information because there appeared to be no threat. The information was relayed to the San Diego FBI office last week and then to the school district Friday.

"The children are absolutely safe," said San Diego Police Chief Bill Lansdowne. "If there was a threat, we, the San Diego Police Department, would be first to notify (parents). This is not a threat."

The disk contained a document entitled "Practical Information on Crisis Planning, A Guide for Schools and Communities." The 50-plus page document, published in May 2003 by the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, is available to the public on the U.S. Department of Education's Web site, said San Diego District spokeswoman Peri Lynn Turnbull.

FBI officials visited the office of district Superintendent Alan Bersin Friday to inform him, Turnbull said. Because there was no indication that terrorists were targeting any schools, in San Diego or elsewhere, the district informed the school police department, but decided not to notify schools and parents.

"We certainly did not want to create any unnecessary panic in our community," Turnbull said. The FBI said because there was no specific threat, that was the appropriate response.

"The superintendent was alerted by the FBI that there were no direct threats to the district or any San Diego school and that by our maintaining our same level of care and concern that our schools would be safe," Turnbull said.

Dan Dzwilewski, head of the FBI office in San Diego, said there is no reason for alarm.

"We don't know the intention of the person that had this material," Dzwilewski said. "But the disk contained absolutely no threat information. It's only out of an abundance of caution – because it was discovered in Iraq

Some counterterrorism officials said they were concerned that the information would be misinterpreted and would alarm people unnecessarily. They said the information was withheld from the public because there was no specific threat, and the public may become inured to repeated general warnings of vague possibilities of attacks.

"There is no threat here," said a San Diego police lieutenant who spoke on condition of confidentiality because of the sensitive nature of such investigations. "When you've put out information month after month after month, the public thinks we're crying wolf.

"The context here is, a public source document put out by the U.S. Department of Education was found on a computer. Period. My concern would be if a particular school district, or a particular school, or a particular institution was targeted, which it has not been."

Lansdowne said the situation shows that the federal government is sharing information with local agencies in an efficient manner.

"I think it's a good indication of how quickly we're notified and the thoroughness of the information we receive," the chief said. "They give us all the information now and allow local jurisdictions to do with it what they think they should."

Lansdowne said the report on the disk lauds the district as an example of good planning.

The document mentions other school districts and gives information about evacuations, lockdowns and other emergency procedures in the event of a disaster, such as an earthquake or terrorist attack.

"If somebody read the article, they would say we're not going to pick San Diego because they have a very good plan in place," Lansdowne said. "It's probably more good news than bad news."

IN 1974, ISRAEL BEGAN ARMING PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS WHO VOLUNTEERED TO PATROL LOCAL SCHOOLS.

Israeli officials say since the program was implemented, no child has been killed in a school.

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=680

Millions Diverted From School Guards UJC officials acknowledge less than half of $20 million raised for security in Israel now slated for that purpose.

Stewart Ain - Staff Writer

Some are questioning what will happen to remaining $12 million earmarked for protecting Israeli schoolkids.

Esther Hecht

Only $8 million of the $20 million raised from American Jews to provide security guards for Israel’s schoolchildren will be used for that purpose, The Jewish Week has learned.

“Something doesn’t smell good,” said Hilik Goldstein, a spokesman for the Union of Local Authorities, which is hiring the guards for Israel’s 124 municipalities and who revealed the funding cutback.

Hoffman stressed that authorities in Israel, not the UJC, made the decision to cut back on the $20 million security guard program. But Goldstein said Israeli parents would have a hard time accepting that decision in light of the July 30 bombing at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that killed nine.

“After that bombing, we heard from police sources in Israel that Palestinian [terrorists] intended to do some activities against children,” Goldstein said. “A lot of parents went to the local authorities and asked them to ensure the safety of their children.”

“We don’t know where they [terrorists] are going to hit next and we have to do the maximum to protect our children and make sure that everything is OK,” she said.

“The high schools have their own guards and there are a lot of teachers who walk around with weapons,” she added. “But in the kindergartens, there are 38 kids with two unarmed women. They are more vulnerable [to attack].”

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Group Advocates Armed Parent Patrols for U.S. Schools

By Jim Burns

CNP Senior Staff Writer

March 27, 2001

(CNSNews.com) - A senior citizens' group is offering what it calls a "safe schools initiative," based on an Israeli model, in response to the recent spate of school shootings in the United States.

The Dallas, Texas-based group calls itself "Seniors United Supporting the Second Amendment."

Executive Director John Bender said SUSSA will offer scholarships for courses in handgun safety and the use of guns in defensive situations to five volunteers, selected by the first public school in the United States that adopts the Israeli model for protecting the school from violence.

In 1974, Israel began arming parents and grandparents who volunteered to patrol local schools. Israeli officials say since the program was implemented, no child has been killed in a school.

Some Israeli schools continue to use armed parent- and grandparent-patrols, while other schools have hired armed guards for protection. The Israeli government also requires groups going on school field trips to have one armed guard for every 10 students. Many parents double as guards and chaperones on such field trips, and most of those parents have had army training and know how to use a gun.

According to SUSSA, if the Israeli program been in place at U.S. schools, recent shootings, including the two in California, might not have happened. "SUSSA urges every school in America to implement the Israeli safety program before there is another school shooting," the group said.

"We want to make our schools safe and stop the killings. Israel has a program that is tested and proven to work. By adopting the Israeli model we can stop the tragic school shooting and protect our Constitutional right to own and carry firearms.

"We will also gain from having parents and grandparents involved and visible in our schools. This will cut down on the bullying and tormenting that we now see as a major problem in our schools," Bender said.

The idea has received support from the 60-Plus Association, a senior citizens rights group.

"Clearly, it would be beneficial to all students to have senior citizens, parents and grandparents patrolling the halls of schools. This would be a good use of senior citizen know-how and manpower," said Jim Martin, president of the 60-Plus Association.

Handgun Control, Inc. had no immediate comment on the proposal.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200103\NAT20010327a.html

all national guard trainees could be doing their 'high desert' training in the Soutwest. Add a few hundred predator drones and a border patrol with the authority to call for help from guard reinforcements to track and hunt down infiltrators... and a civil patrol of volunteers with radios doing private property between san diego and elpaso... and we could cut that down to a trickle.

I would also like to see the Army,Navy,Airforce, and all the guard and auxilaries re-opting to open training ON HIGH SCHOOL campuses to recruit and train men and women who actually WANT to learn self-defense, officer skills, military prep, law enforcement, security and patrolling basics and such. You ought to be training our next generation of 'throat slitters' two days a month at Patrick Henry High. (and people like you who have "the gift") It would go further to change our nation's mental state on defense and undermine criminal activity in the public school system, than all the bills the dems in sacramento could pass in five years.

We could do a lot more. And it would REALLY make the difference. I am not as worried about the borders as I should be. But my decades in San Diego, tell me THIS is no longer just a 'wetbacks' problem related to migrant 'fruit pickers'.. not any more. Ridge is either being intentionally disengenous or wrong. I prefer to beleive the former. but fear the latter.

I pray W does take action to close that opening down, and that he does it in such a way that keeps our relationship with mexico great, and in fact, enhances it. Where would we be without sport fishing in baja?

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