I am afraid to send my son to school

[Stone]

The following link was sent to me by a friend of mine. My son attends a school in Fort Myers, The goverment says not to worry but I just can't send him to school.

This world is getting to scarry, I never would have imagined that I would ever have to fear this.

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs....410080446/1075

I don't know what to do!!

[Duke]

The link doesn't work for me, it only opens up to a blank page.

What happened?

[Merika]

GOOD GOD Stoneheather!!! This is too important of an article NOT to be posted! So...here goes: (NOTE: This is a reputable news source....not some blog somewhere!!)

By GRANT BOXLEITNER
gboxleitner@news-press.com
Published by news-press.com on October 8, 2004

A man described as an Iraqi insurgent reportedly downloaded school floor plans and security information about elementary and high schools in six states including Fort Myers, according to a TV news report.

Documents from schools in Fort Myers were among those recovered from Iraqi insurgents that could be linked to the al-Qaida terrorism network.

Other than Fort Myers, documents were found from school districts in Salem, Ore., Gray, Ga., Birch Run, Mich., two towns in New Jersey and two towns in California.

Lee County Superintendent James Browder said he learned of the findings two weeks ago from FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials. Browder said he was told Lee County was "one of thousands" of U.S. school districts on a computer disc recovered from Iraqi insurgents. Browder met with FDLE, FBI, Lee County Sheriff Rod Shoap and Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter, who is part of a homeland security task force. He said government officials told him they weren't going to issue a news release on the findings because there was no immediate threat.

"I asked if we were in any danger. They said no," Browder said. "I have to trust the experts."

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said the FBI told officials there that there was “no direct informationâ€Â� that schools in his state are “under any kind of threat.â€Â� He said that school building floor plans and other sensitive materials about schools are not available via the Internet in Florida.

“We have talked to the superintendents to make sure that what they have been doing they continue to do - to make safety first and foremost for the kids of our state,â€Â� Bush said.

The Lee County school information recovered on the disc was a code of conduct and lists of schools and transportation information, Browder said.

"That can all be found on the Web," he said.

On Wednesday, the federal government warned schools nationwide to look out for suspicious activity that might signal terrorist activity, and told school officials to be on the lookout for anyone spying on their buildings or buses.

In particular, schools were told to watch for activities that may be legitimate on their own â€â€� but may suggest a 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.

Browder said he told school board members and principals and cautioned school officials to report anything suspicious, "like we always do."

Lee County sheriff's spokesman Ileana LiMarzi said the agency does not discuss security plans and issued no other comment.

School board member Robert Chilmonik said he contacted U.S. Rep. Porter Goss' local office when he learned of the threat. Goss was recently confirmed as the Director of Central Intelligence by the U.S. Senate. Chilmonik said FBI and FDLE officials told him the intelligence mentioning Fort Myers was a month old when they received it.

"We notified the school board and administrators," Chilmonik said. "Our first line of defense is the principals out in the field. We all have to be looking (for threats) all the time â€â€� administrators, parents and students."

Carl Burnside, principal at Dunbar High School in Fort Myers, said before the threat level was known, he was told to "make sure things were tight" at his school.

"We're always told to keep our schools safe," Burnside said. "We wanted to make sure we had everything in place. The threat wasn't substantiated."

Ron Davis, principal at Varsity Lakes Middle School in Lehigh Acres, said he wasn't aware of any sensitive documents recovered in Iraq, but said his new school building "was built with safety in mind."

"I do believe that we have â€â€� through our normal procedures and precautions â€â€� provided for security and safety of faculty and students," Davis said.

[Duke]

I wouldn't worry about it much. I can bet that it would make your head spin if you actually knew what others do know about your city, neighborhood, etc.

If you take it too seriously, you may as well dig a big hole and jump in because thats the safest you'll ever be. In this day and age, if someone or some body wants information, you can find it virtually anywhere.

[Merika]

THANKS for posting that Stoneheather! I made a copy and sent it out in email so it can be forwarded and hopefully posted on forums during the day. I'll also see it gets posted on the GOP forum which many government officials read.

Due to all the political SQUABBLING.....it seems people aren't taking threats seriously.

I'm with you, when it comes to my kids, EVERYTHING is serious! I'm mad as hell that this isn't in on the nightly news around the country!

I don't know what advice to give about kids being safe in school. I just don't know.

[Duke]

Geeze I hope I didn't sound ignorant in my previous post. My concern is quite the opposite but I'm in a county that isn't putting major emphasis on terrorism.

If I sounded like a tard, please forgive me, I'm not perfect. The point I was trying to make is if you worry about things you here then be thankful for the things you don't because you never can know the full story no matter how hard you try.

My other concern is people being help prisoner by fear. It will control your life sooner or later and you'll likely be paralized by it.

[Merika]

In doing some checking...the truth is that this information (the school's blueprints) were actually on the internet. I'm not sure why it would be...nor do I think it's a good idea for it to be.

I do believe if we let outselves get too deep into fear....it begins to chip away at the quality of our lives. At the same time....we have to balance using wisdom and caution.

As a parent, I would follow my heart.

[Duke]

Everythings on the internet, you just have to know where to look.

[Paul]

I agree Duke, I understand the concern people have as parents and appreciate your wanting to keep a balance Merika. My only thought is that of Duke and something I see far to often south of the Canadian border (and I mean this in the most sincere way), fear is something the government and others use through the media to control the population. Fear causes people to buy in hopes of increasing their security, as quoted in Fahrenheit 911 "war is good for business, bad for the people". It's important that we don't let fear control our lives or dictate how we live, there are numerous ways we could die or be hurt just by living safely in our own neighborhood, not to mention the limitless amounts of information available on the internet that people could exploit to harm others in some way. You just can't dwell on it or pretty soon you're running from your own shadow and seeing monsters in the closet.

Please don't take this the wrong way, I mean it with the uptmost respect but I think that fear and the way your government uses it against the population is a greater evil then what any outside force could do to you.

hi all

Saw you guys talking about fahrenheit 911 before.

More about fahrenheit 911 trend(s)

This is really interesting, looks like a graph over time of the number of times " fahrenheit 911 " has been mentioned, it does this by graphing the results in google yahoo etc, very interesting, you can see just how popular fahrenheit 911 is becoming


Click here to see the fahrenheit 911 history

[darkangelism]

they try to spread terror, if you think about it too much they are winning. If i go outside my building turn left and look up there is a hole in the skyline where the WTC should be, but i cant be afraid to be here.

[Duke]

Those are pretty great tools dgtlspoon, thanks for linking us up. BTW, welcome to Lifesupporters

[alkali]

It's a new world, get used to it!

Anything where people (young or old) cluster up is a target. Terrorists have scouted everything we have thats a notable target. One only needs to understand the mentality of these people to get the idea that nothing is safe. They have no regard for human life be it man, women or child.
That is why we have to deal with the regimes that foster this mentality as a source of terrorism.

That current administration belives in fighting them at THIER doorstep not ours...http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/index.jsp will give you some idea of whats being looked at...explore it. While this just skims the surface of what going on, be assured that very little has been overlooked in terms of public safety. We are much safer now but it will NEVER be enough so we all have to be on guard...always, its a new world.