This is a postscript to my previous blog entry regarding advanced video technology surveillance, linked directly to police departments, installed in schools in New Jersey.
I would like to focus this entry on something no parent ever wants to face. That would be the thought of terrorism entering our own schools, right here in Franklin, Wisconsin.
Eric Shoemaker, a retired law enforcement administrator wrote a paper titled:
Terrorism in American Schools: The First of ALL Fears
Eric is a retired Public Safety Administrator with over 23 years of service on college and university campuses. He is an author of over two dozen publications on law enforcement and public safety topics. He is also a retired active and reserve U.S. Army officer.
His paper details school terrorism attacks on the following schools, and their motivations:
The Bath, Michigan Consolidated School Case 1927
The Columbine, Colorado High School Case 1999
The Belsan North Ossetia, Russian School Number One Case 2004
The West Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania (Amish) School Case 2006
Shoemaker also discusses the Islamist Jihad and their view on women and children as being collateral damage in jihad and his thoughts on the LIKELY terrorist threat to U.S schools.
He states, "On an emotional level, no matter how unlikely, and perhaps because al Quaida or Belsan-type attack on an American school or schools is so unthinkable, it becomes the first of all fears. But, just because something is unthinkable, does not mean it is likely."
"When looking at examples of school massacres in the United States, there is greater likelihood that the threat comes from a pair like Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris who had a series of problems, plus firearms. Other likelihood rests with lone disturbed individuals such as Andrew Kehoe or Charles Carl Roberts IV."
"Mitigating the risk of terrorist targeting of American schools is an exercise of dispassionately determining the greatest threat and then devising strategies to mitigate and manage that threat; be it individuals armed with firearms, explosives, or toxins that can be introduced to the victims through water, air or food. The Columbine Review Commission report to Colorado Governor Bill Owens is a detailed account of the events and lessons learned. It contains valuable insight that by extension can provide a framework for action to combat violence of the type that, to many, is the first of all fears."
PLEASE take the time to read Eric Shoemaker's entire paper, Terrorism in American Schools: The First of All Fears. It's only six, short pages.
Then, PLEASE take the time to leave your thoughts ...
Also, go back to my last post and think about it again. Is high-tech video surveillance something we might want to consider in Franklin Public Schools?
What do you think about the possibility of an Islamist Jihad attack here, on U.S. soil, in our own schools?
If you would like to contact Eric Shoemaker, his email is jjackoe@comcast.net
Thanks for reading this article.
Terrorism in American Schools: The First of All Fears also formatted in TEXT here ß
