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| Fear of terrorist attacks keeps educators worried |
| 2005-05-04 |
| With Columbine, Sept. 11 and the Russian school massacre of last summer seared in their memories, New Jersey educators need few reminders that the worst case can conceivably become their case at any time. It troubles administrators like superintendent Kevin Brennan in Greenwich Township, who admits sometimes losing sleep over what could happen to his two-school district in Warren County, safeguards and all. Police officer Keith Holley wears a bullet-proof vest to his job as school resource officer in West Orange, not sure who exactly the villains are anymore, gangs in the community or something more sinister from outside. "I wear it every day," he said, tapping his chest, "because you never know." They were among more than 200 school and law enforcement officials who gathered at Rutgers University yesterday for what was billed as the Governor's School Security Summit, led by acting Gov. Richard Codey. Codey has made school security a centerpiece of his brief term in office, invoking especially the terrorist massacre of 300 adults and students in Beslan, Russia, last August. He has pledged all 3,700 public and private schools in the state would be inspected for their vulnerabilities by law enforcement officials by next fall. "We have seen how terrorists operate," he said yesterday. "Terrorists are constantly trying to stay ahead of law enforcement. To stay safe, we have to be more vigilant, even more inventive and creative than they are." Some school officials wondered who would pay for security measures when and if they are needed in the schools. Codey said he hoped federal money could be secured, hopefully without putting additional burden on local taxpayers. "Safety audits" in the state's schools hav seen a slow start. Just a handful have been evaluated so far as state officials said they want to pilot the process before going statewide. But they said training is finished with more than 1,000 local officers and administrators conducting reviews and the program should go full throttle by mid-May. One of the first audits took place at South Toms River Elementary School this week, where a local officer toured the school for more than 60 items on the state's checklist, from secure doors to teacher training to crisis planning. Each audit takes two to four hours, depending on the school, officials said. "We felt pretty good about it," said William Cardone, assistant superintendent of the Toms River Regional Schools district. "But I also have to admit it's probably easier in an elementary school than it will be in the larger middle or high schools." Codey also announced yesterday that the state would provide some help in developing a curriculum for teachers to be trained in security procedures, be it as undergraduates or once on the job. Teachers know their evacuations and lockdowns, one official said, but what if a sniper is at the back of the school shooting into windows? "These are the kinds of things teachers don't know, but they really are crying out to know," said Dennis Quinn, who is coordinating much of Codey's initiative as assistant to state Attorney General Peter Harvey. Held in the New Brunswick campus' student center, the daylong summit was sobering in its warnings and scenarios of attacks by bombs, guns and even computers. Sidney Casperson, the state's director of counterterrorism, went into detail about al Qaeda terrorists' intent to take on any target available. He said training tapes have been found that depict school settings, and cited the information about two New Jersey schools found on suspicious computers in Iraq last fall. His biggest word of advice was vigilance on the part of everyone in the school community. "I don't want to upset you, but there are a lot of people out there who want to hurt us," he said. "The best way to protect ourselves is to use all the eyes and ears we have." With regard to the question of who would pay for additional security measures, a school official of the Metuchen diocese suggested a per-student security fund be allotted by the state, similar to that for technology. "A lot of these things could be taken care of, and this issue wouldn't be just used for political purposes," said Frank Heelan, the diocese's assistant superintendent. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Jeez, what is it, ''Warren County, NJ Day'' in the news? All of a sudden we hillbillies are famous for some strange reason. Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup. |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2005-05-04 19:48 |