School Bus Drivers Join the Terror Watch

[Norquist Nemesis]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SCHOOL_BUS_DRIVERS_TERRORISM?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- The war on terror has a new front line - the school bus line.

Financed by the Homeland Security Department, school bus drivers are being trained to watch for potential terrorists, people who may be casing their routes or plotting to blow up their buses.

...
With bus drivers becoming informal intelligence gatherers, the reach of homeland security is growing - not exactly what parents think of when their kids head to the bus stop.

...
"Today it's bus drivers, tomorrow it could be postal officials, and the next day, it could be, 'Why don't we have this program in place for the people who deliver the newspaper to the door?'" Rollins said. "We could quickly get into a society where we're all spying on each other. It may be well intentioned, but there is a concern of going a bit too far."

[MadMaddie]

1. School Bus Drivers...

Are they going to report on the elementary kids?

This is the Twilight Zone!! How many millions of dollars are they spending on this program?

[TallahasseeGrannie]

2. We have been told in our district

(I am a teacher) to report any school bus we see parked in front of a school without a driver.

Yeah, right. Our drivers come in to use the bathroom all the time. Get real.

On the other hand, I see their point. But...really... I just can't get my knickers in a twist over it.

[Realityhack]

23. because we all know...

terrorists NEVER kill themselves allong with the target... right?!?

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Gotta admit

That's one that I hadn't really thought about though and, potentially, a weakness for targeting.

My first reaction was the same as yours. Now, I'm torn. I can't fathom having a crowded bus full of children. But while they're "training" the drivers, are they also checking the buses under the carriage or elsewhere before putting kids on them?

Crap. Now I'm sounding paranoid.

[VaYallaDawg]

4. Paranoia is the coin of the realm for the crooks in charge now.

[MadMaddie]

7. This is what they want you to do....

This is only to increase the fear and paranoia and to turn neighbor against neighbor!!
This is a lazy effort to act like they are doing something.

This is this administrations history.....increase government functions instead of improving systems already in place.

Some of the things that can be done..


Thorough Criminal Checks...
Make sure that School Bus Drivers are American Citizens...
They could put tracking systems on the buses and insure that the buses are not going out of their routes.
Yes they should be checking the buses under the carriage
The security where the buses are parked should have excellent security.

There are so many things they can do other than this, that could prevent something bad from happening.

They take the most extreme action, when they have other options that are available.

This is this administrations history.....increase government functions instead of improving systems already in place.

[Norquist Nemesis]

11. Thanks, I needed that

And you're absolutely correct!

[MadMaddie]

15. Anytime.....

:toast:

[Realityhack]

20. I think the first thing on the list should be...

make sure they know how to drive a bus and how to deal with children.
Kids on the school bus probobly face more pressing threats than terrorism.

Frankly not one of the things on your list would stop a bus form being attacked, frankly it wouldn't even come close. Its far far to easy despite any of those measures. And some of those things become extreamly costly very quickly. As cold as people chose to see it as being... at some point a cost benifit transition is reached.

[Realityhack]

21. oh...

and you are 100% dead on with the increasing of fear and paranoia.

It doesn't help that the people charged with defending us are fucking idiots either.

[Kolesar]

5. SHUT UP KIDS or you're going off to GITMO!

[genie_weenie]

6. Hail to the Bus Driver, Bus Driver, Bus Driver

Hail to the Bus Driver Man.

Remember kids it's disloyal not to turn in your parents for thoughtcrime.

SOLYENT GREEN IS PEOPLE! IT'S PEOPLE!

[radfringe]

8. why don't they just train

the fundies that go door-to-door? they hit everyone on our street at least twice a month...

[rodeodance]

9. anyone who is a critic will be slapped with Not protecting children.

[kineneb]

10. my bus drivers didn't have time to deal with 'terrists...

they were busy trying to control the little beasties in the seats...I doubt that present-day drivers have it any different...

[yellowcanine]

12. Shouldn't school bus drivers concentrate on the road and the traffic?

I am not sure that this is going to make kids any safer - it may have the opposite result.

[superconnected]

13. In other words they are deploying all people to be at watch to report

behavior.

It will work to 1, keep us in terror, and 2, get the whole ingrain network in place to report suspected gays(terrorists to family values), Anti-war people(helpers of Al quaida and demoralizers in war), immigrants (hey you never know if that ESL kid is helping the the other side, let alone legally in the country), and of course people that don't agree with the Bush Administration (clearly terrorists who hate america and want to destroy the Christian State).

Just more pieces in place for a nation afraid their neighbors will report them if they have dissenting views.

[xultar]

14. They need to be watching the PERVERTS hanging out bus stops.

[PSPS]

16. Is this TIPS version 2?

[Tempest]

17. BOO!

HaHa.

Somewhere a Bush supporter crapped his pants.

[azurnoir]

18. Hope I'm wrong

but as far as I know school bus drivers make s*** money. I suspect next will be office cleaners, hotel maids, and other service industry people. What this is in reality is an attempt to make the working class feel Incorporated into the GWOT and part of the repuke system.
Hitler did something similar early on with the SS(?) I believe

[havocmom]

19. You have a good point. All part of the bid to assure the masses

get their kicks from pats on the head by the father (land) figure. Once people are trained to do tricks for approval by the powers that be, too many of them become too willing to go too far.

[RedSock]

22. sleep well, america!

Otto is on the job!

[mitchum]

32. You are quite right

that is exactly their aim

[HockeyMom]

24. Couple we knew from Germany,

who fled the Nazi's in 1939, told us this one story. He had a friend from childhood who lived down the street from them. He said he never seemed particularly politically inclined. One night at a dinner party at their house, the man made a sarcastic comment about the Fuhrer. Two days later the SS appeared at his door and brought him down for questioning. It seems his childhood friend had turned him in for simply an off the cuff remark. From then on he was labeled as a dissident and he could not do anything without his every word and move being watched.

Starting to sound familiar?

[OKNancy]

25. kick

for combine

[Judi Lynn]

26. School bus drivers join war on terror

School bus drivers join war on terror
Saturday, February 18, 2006 By BEN FELLER AP EDUCATION WRITER


NORFOLK, Va. The war on terror has a new front line — the school bus line.

Financed by the Homeland Security Department, school bus drivers are being trained to watch for potential terrorists, people who may be casing their routes or plotting to blow up their buses.

Designers of the School Bus Watch program want to turn 600,000 bus drivers into an army of observers, like a counterterrorism watch on wheels. Already mindful of motorists with road rage and kids with weapons, bus drivers are now being warned of far more grisly scenarios.

TERROR SCENARIO

Like this one: Terrorists monitor a punctual driver for weeks, then hijack a bus and load the friendly yellow vehicle with enough explosives to take down a building.
An alert school bus driver could foil that plan, security expert Jeffrey Beatty recently told a class of 250 of drivers in Norfolk, Va. After all, bus drivers cover millions of miles of roads. They know the towns, the kids, the parents.

“The terrorist is not going to be able to do some of their casing and rehearsal activity without being detected by one of you,” said Beatty, an anti-terrorism veteran of the CIA, FBI and the Army’s Delta Force. The more people watching, he told the drivers, the safer the community will be.
(snip/...)

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=270077&Category=23&external=&newCookie=yes&userID=110924
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[bluestateguy]

27. A kid has a better chance of catching the flu on a school bus

more so than being blown up by a terrorist boogy man.

In fact, more people will die this year alone from the flu than we have ever lost in terrorist attacks in the United States.

[obxhead]

28. VA had a very similar program to aid the "war on drugs" as well...

VA paid big bucks to train all school bus drivers to watch for drug use by fellow motorists. I would love to see some actual stats that show the money was well spent.

:eyes:

[HuffleClaw]

29. erm, didn't they already TRY this 'citizen snoops' crap?

and it was shot down i think. this will end up with DISSENTING people being investigated, those with the wrong skin tone or the wrong bumper sticker on their car. an utter and complete waste of resources.

[Selatius]

30. When I was in high school, the big bogeyman of the day was...

kids coming to school with guns and homemade bombs. It's the same shit, just a different scapegoat. Blame the rock music. Blame the Arabs. Maybe the people would be best served if they stopped listening to the people who hold power and listen to what their common sense says.

You've got a way of living that is essentially built on the exploitation of others. Everything is made in China now. Everything is for sale. Everything is owned, and it's not owned by the people. It's owned by Mr. CEO. It's owned by the damn corporation.

When you exploit, entrap, and imprison humanity in a gigantic money-making scheme that benefits the few at the expense of humanity, of course you're going to get people so miserable they'd strap on a bomb and go for a walk! Of course you're going to have alienated kids coming to school committing suicide or blowing away fellow students!

Hey, whatever gets the ratings up on television, man! It's all good! Because the more crazy shit happens, the more can be put on tv for higher ratings! Making money off of humann misery is the American Way! If we can get a few miserable kids to sign up to fight our wars for profit, even better! That's even more money!

:sarcasm:

[Judi Lynn]

31. Good points! Peace would cause a total collapse. Can't have that. Sad. n/t