Posted on 10/07/2004 10:14:24 AM PDT by crushelits
WASHINGTON - The Education Department has advised school leaders nationwide to watch for people spying on their buildings or buses to help detect any possibility of terrorism like the deadly school siege in Russia.
The warning follows an analysis by the FBI (news - web sites) and the Homeland Security Department of the siege that killed nearly 340 people, many of them students, in the city of Beslan last month.
"The horror of this attack may have created significant anxiety in our own country among parents, students, faculty staff and other community members," Deputy Education Secretary Eugene Hickok said in a letter to schools and education groups.
The safety advice is based on lessons learned from the Russia incident. But there is "no specific information indicating that there is a terrorist threat to any schools or universities in the United States," Hickok said.
Federal law enforcement officials also have encouraged local police to stay in contact with school officials and have encouraged reporting of suspicious activities, the letter says.
In particular, schools were told to watch for activities that may be legitimate on their own — but may suggest a heightened terrorist threat if many of them occur.
Among those activities:
_ Interest in obtaining site plans for schools, bus routes and attendance lists;
_ Prolonged "static surveillance" by people disguised as panhandlers, shoe shiners, newspaper or flower vendors or street sweepers not previously seen in the area;
_ Observations of security drills;
_ People staring at or quickly looking away from employees or vehicles as they enter or leave parking areas;
_ Foot surveillance of campuses involving individuals working together.
The effort is the latest by the Education Department and other federal agencies to encourage school officials to maintain and practice a plan for responding to emergencies.
After the terrorist takeover of the Russian school, President Bush (news - web sites) asked his top advisers to review their strategies for dealing with hostage situations, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has said.
The federal government is advising schools to take many steps to improve the security of their buildings. Those include installing locks for all doors and windows, having a single entry point into buildings and ensuring they can reach school bus drivers in an emergency.
The Education Department sent its letter by e-mail Wednesday to school police, state school officers, school boards, groups representing principals and many other organizations.
The Homeland Security Department also sent a bulletin Wednesday to federal, state and local emergency officials to provide fresh guidance based on the review of the school siege in Russia.
The 40-day mourning period for the Beslan victims is almost over. I think it's up on the tenth of October.
Bush took the focus off of Osama because Osama's dead.
What better way to get the entire Muslim world to want to kill us? These terrorists couldn't care less about Mecca. Mecca gets destroyed, all Muslims come together to fight the Americans. The end justifies the means.
Was there a specific event which precipitated this action?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1238861/posts
Forty-one Sarin-filled Rockets found in Iraq
No WMD you say?
but Kerry said there were no terrorists in Iraq, so they must have been plans for some kind of friendly exchange b/w the kite-flying children of the Michael Moore peaceful Iraq and America...
Imagine if we had not acted, and a school was hit as a result, would those parents wish we had acted?
Kinda like the outcry when those mean FBI agents arrested those poor Muslim boys on Sept. 10th, 2001, b/c of their crazy conspiracy talk about flying planes into buildings...ludicrous. Those poor boys just wanted to learn to fly.
No specific incident that I know of. I believe it was a school district wide policy change, but they implemented it before the Beslan incident.
There could have been an incident at another school that I don't know about.
Which part of this don't you understand?
Had we not been in Iraq we would never have found out that terrorists are targeting our schools.
Did you learn at the knee of Neville Chamberlain?
Oh and by 'incident' I mean like a parent trying to yank their kid out of school during a divorce battle, that sort of thing, not a terrorist incident. I am 100% sure nothing like that happened at school there.
You mean, nobody got an idea of that possibility after the atrocity in Russia? Sorry, but when that happened, I assumed there would be heightened security at schools, in the U.S. You're saying nobody took a lesson from that atrocity, but rather they waited till they found something in Bagdhad?
And I see you STILL, weeks after being asked the questions repeatedly, respond to the other questions?
Neville wasn't very bright either.
I do not know how many people remember this but I specifically remember the computer records that the police found at the home of the two columbine shooters. These notes had there entire plan listed which was to end with them taking the kids hostage and crashing a plane into NY city. Now the terrorist are shooting up schools.
I find it very strange that on complete opposite ends of the earth evil people could somehow come to the same desires?
I am not a religious man, but I know a hoof print when I see one.
We were in Iraq long before the Russian schools were hit.
NO, no-one here would think of such things until after the fact.
Did YOU foresee terrorists flying aircraft into the WTC on 9/11?
Why, you should have foreseen it after seeing the mural in Saddam's palace!
And yet every suicide bomber devoutly believes his satanic end justifies the means.
Islam has flunked the 20th Century. IMO it will never recover from its barbaric self-destruction.
And if some wild-eyed, hypnotized 16-year-old thinks he will further the glory of Mohammad by blowing himself up inside a Smallville, U.S.A. second grade classroom, he'd better realize now that Americans will wipe his remnants off the face of the earth.
Vaporization of Mecca would just be the beginning..
Very scary situation
Ok, everyone................
I just checked out the Salem Keizer District website and did not find floor plans, however, I did find driving directions to each school!
BTW, Salem-Keizer Schools have the second largest district in Oregon, even bypassing Beaverton (in the Portland area.)
School access information page http://www.salkeiz.k12.or.us/schools/jgems.htm
Sample elementary school http://www.salkeiz.k12.or.us/schools/auburn.htm
Middle school sample http://www.salkeiz.k12.or.us/schools/claggett.htm
High school sample http://www.salkeiz.k12.or.us/schools/mckay.htm
Charter schools have identical information as the elementary, middle of high school locations
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.