By Del Stover
10/26/04 — School officials in six states recently had a scare after being informed by federal law enforcement officials that the U.S. military had found a computer disk in Iraq containing information about their school systems.
Later reports suggested the information had been collected for legitimate purposes. But after last month’s terrorist attack on a school in Beslan, Russia, news of the disk raised concerns as to whether terrorists were scouting out American schools.
According to the FBI, there is no evidence of any specific threat to local schools, and school districts were notified only as a precautionary measure in worrisome times.
“This is a little bit discomforting, we recognize that,” says FBI spokesperson Paul Bresson. “What we can say is the analysis we did does not lead us to believe that any of those schools are a target . . . but these days, it’s better we play it safe.”
Most of the information on the disk was downloaded from the Internet. It included photos, floor plans, school policies, and a federal report on how schools could prepare for a crisis. But there was no indication of any particular school being singled out.
Some reports have indicated the disk owner was an Iraqi government official or an individual working on school planning, but Bresson could only confirm he’s aware of such reports. He says the investigation into the matter is still going on.
Among the school districts identified were Birch Run, Mich; Jones County, Ga.; Lee County, Fla.; Salem, Ore; San Diego, Calif.; and Franklinville and Rumson, N.J. ABC News reported there was a second California district.
Word of the federal government’s warning caused some alarm among parents, says Jones County Superintendent William Mathews.
In a letter sent home with students, Mathews reassured parents that no direct or suspected threat appeared to exist against the local schools. Later media accounts that said the material might have been collected for legitimate purposes also eased tensions.
Finally, he says, “the anxiety dropped substantially once the media left town and stopped giving it so much airplay.”
With no immediate danger in sight, local officials were measured in their response: Mathews says the school crisis plan is undergoing a review. Principals have been reminded to keep exterior doors locked or monitored, and law enforcement agencies have stepped up patrols around campuses.
“This alert has tightened up things a great deal,” Mathews says. “We’re probably safer than we’ve ever been in history.”
Lee County, Fla., school officials were told the Iraq disk contained little more than a page from their student code of conduct manual listing all schools by transportation zones, says district spokesperson Joni Logan. There was nothing alarming like building diagrams or a copy of the district’s school-safety plan.
After hearing the FBI assessment, school officials decided no significant changes in security were needed, but principals were asked “to make sure their security plans were updated and any new employees were well aware of the security plan,” she says.
Although many metropolitan school systems have planned in recent years for the possibility of a terrorist attack somewhere in their community, concern that terrorists might target a school itself became a far more frightening possibility after the Beslan school siege, in which 340 people were killed, including many children.
The U.S. Education Department issued a letter Oct. 6 to schools across the nation urging them to heighten security and vigilance against terrorism.
“The recent terrorist attack against a school in Beslan, Russia, was obviously a shocking incident worldwide,” wrote Deputy Under Secretary Eugene W. Hickok. “Understandably, the horror of this attack may have created significant anxiety in our country among parents, students, staff, and other community members.”
The letter listed a variety of security measures schools should take — and advised school officials to keep an eye out for unusual behavior around their schools.
At the National School Safety Center, Executive Director Ronald Stephens agrees with the response of school systems whose first reaction was to review their school safety plans. These plans are their first line of defense.
After studying the tragedy at Columbine High School and other school shootings over the years, it’s clear that “most of the incidents took place in less than 20 minutes, and it was school people who were the first responders to the incident,” he says. “So, if you think of the possibility of a terrorist attack occurring, there is a tremendous case you can make for self-reliance.”
Stephens also encourages school officials to look for possible terrorist targets in the neighborhoods surrounding their schools. It’s not just metropolitan school systems that face this risk, he says, noting that a rural Kentucky school is located near a nuclear spent-rod facility — a possible terrorism target.
The attack of “9/11 punctuated the matter because nine schools were near Ground Zero,” he says.