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Jersey districts warned on terror
Friday, October 08, 2004 • BY WAYNE WOOLLEY
• Star-Ledger Staff
Federal and state law enforcement officials have warned
two New Jersey school districts that a CD found by the U.S.
military in Iraq contained crisis planning information about
their schools.
The districts, identified by a state law enforcement
official who spoke on condition of anonymity, were Rumson in
Monmouth County and Franklin Township in Gloucester
County.
Information about the two districts, as well as data
about a half-dozen other schools in Georgia, Florida,
Michigan, Oregon and California, apparently had been culled
from publicly available information on the Internet and
placed on the computer disc discovered by the military in
Iraq.
Roger Shatzkin, a spokesman for the state Office of
Counter-Terrorism, said the New Jersey districts were warned
of the discovery about three weeks ago.
"The two school districts did have their Web sites
accessed from overseas," said Shatzkin, who declined to
identify the districts.
He said school officials were given guidance on how to
bolster the security of their Web sites. He added that it
was unclear who initially downloaded the information and for
what reason.
"There's no threat against these schools or other
schools," Shatzkin said.
The downloaded information found in Iraq included an
Education Department report instructing schools on how to
prepare for and respond to a crisis, one official who spoke
on the condition of anonymity told the Associated
Press.
The official said it was not clear whether the discovery
represented a threat.
It was possible, the official said, that the person
collecting the information in Iraq was someone involved in
civic planning or school construction.
The CD contained an Education Department report called
"Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide for
Schools and Communities," published in May 2003, as well as
photos and floor plans.
In a separate but more widespread warning this week, the
Education Department 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 last month in Russia.
The warning follows an analysis by the FBI and the
Homeland Security Department of the siege that killed more
than 330 people, many of them students, in the city of
Beslan.
"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 sent Wednesday to
schools and education groups.
The Education Department's advice is based on lessons
learned from the Russia siege. But there is no specific
information indicating a terrorist threat to any schools or
universities in the United States, Hickok said.
Federal law enforcement officials also have urged 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
threat if many of them occur.
Among those activities were interest in obtaining site
plans for schools, bus routes and attendance lists;
surveillance by panhandlers, shoeshiners, newspaper or
flower vendors or street sweepers not previously seen in the
area; observations of security drills; and people staring at
or quickly looking away from employees or vehicles as they
enter or leave parking areas.
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 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 Associated Press contributed to this report.
© 2004 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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