Posted on 09/22/2004 1:17:32 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
In an federally funded exercise to prepare emergency responders for a terrorist attack, a Michigan county concocted a scenario in which public-school children were threated by a fictitious radical group that believes everyone should be homeschooled.
The made-up group was called Wackos Against Schools and Education.
The exercise in Muskegon, Mich., yesterday simulated a situation in which a bomb on board a bus full of children knocks the vehicle on its side and fills the passenger compartment with smoke.
Dan Stout, director of Muskegon County Emergency Services, told WorldNetDaily the choice of the fictitious group certainly was not meant to offend homeschoolers.
"I don't think there was any particular objective other than to just have a name," he said.
A WND reader who saw a story about the exercise in the Muskegon Chronicle, however, said he was "outraged" at the characterization of the terrorists.
Stoudt said the general idea for the type of group came from the website of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, which suggests group names such as "Wackos Against Recreation" and other such such "causes."
"If somebody is offended, I feel bad about that and sorry about that," he said. "There wasn't any offense meant to anybody who homeschools."
Kevin Galvin, a FEMA spokesman in Washington, D.C., told WND he could not address the issue but would find someone familiar with the homeland security simulations who could respond.
The exercise was funded by homeland security grants to area school districts and Muskegon county.
Stoudt said about $5,000 of federal funds went into yesterday's event, but its cost was much higher and was borne mostly by the volunteer efforts of other agencies and institutions involved, such as hospitals.
The emergency manager said that during the exercise there was no acting out of the "terrorist group." The storyline was used only to explain how the bus ended up on its side.
People simulating injuries were attended by the fire department, which transported them to a hospital. School officials also went through the exercise of contacting parents.
About 60 middle and high school students from local public schools acted out the part of victims, the Chronicle reported. College students were there to apply makeup that added to the realism. More than 200 people planned to observe the exercise, the paper said, including bus drivers, school administrators, emergency personnel and evaluators from agencies across the state.
You dont think there was?
ping
Like: Muslim Terrorists against Everyone Else.
That is more fitting.
Though the original one would be fine, despite the interesting part of the insult that claimed that nothin g was meant as an insult.
It wasn't meant as an insult! It was a "Freudian" thing! I am sure there are a lot of whack jobs who really believe homeschoolers are terrorists. Too bad we can't introduce them to the people of Beslan.
Yeah, right!
That pegs out the old Bovine Fecal Meter. Why not the "Red Tailed Newt Liberation Front" or some such pap instead? I guess they were afraid of offending the newts...
We certainly know there's no antagonism felt by any school administrators against homeschoolers. /sarcasm
Homeschoolers shouldn't feel offended, they should just learn to shut up and take it in the ol' kisser---POW!!!.
HF
Shouldn't that read:
"Right-Wing Wackos Against Schools and Education."?
Oh yeah and good old Dan Rather has no animosity towards President Bush either.
That's me!
Actually, I'm pro education --and therefore anti-school.
Tell you the truth, I've never heard of homeschoolers banding together and terrorizing anyone. I don't think there are any gangs made up of homeschoolers. I do know that many public schools have gangs.
I have heard about disaffected, criminally minded public school students committing terrorist acts -- Columbine comes immediately to mind.
Isn't Michigan the state where that silly Boyce woman wrote that asinine article on homeschooling last week and made a fool of herself?
These cretins aren't worth being offended at. (Pardon my grammar ... no coffee yet!)
Superintendent: mbozym@remc4.k12.mi.us
Assistant superindenent: smeston@remc4.k12.mi.us
Hell, here is the entire directory:
Bozym, Michael (231) 767-7202 mbozym@remc4.k12.mi.us Superintendent
Shaffer, Diane (231) 767-7201 dshaffer@remc4.k12.mi.us Administrative Assistant
Meston, Susan (231) 767-7204 smeston@remc4.k12.mi.us Deputy Superintendent
Barr, Rochelle (231) 767-7203 rbarr@remc4.k12.mi.us Administrative Assistant
Tank, Kristin (231) 767-7263 ktank@remc4.k12.mi.us Public Information Coordinator
Muskegon County Emergency Services
Muskegon, Michigan
Phone: (231) 724-6341
Fax: (231) 724-6678
Daniel Stout, Director of Emergency Services stoutda@co.muskegon.mi.us
Roy Wheeler, Assistant Director of Emergency Services wheelerro@co.muskegon.mi.us
Really? Why not simply have the school bus abducted by negroes bent on cooking and eating the kids or homosexual priests bent on abusing them??
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