Should NW Indiana Worry About A Perfect Day Terror Scenario?

CNN Headline News and radio talk show host Glenn Beck warns that terrorists might be planning attacks on elementary and middle schools around the United States in what he calls a "Perfect Day" terror scenario.

Should Northwest Indiana residents be worried about their children being targets? Is Glenn Beck crying wolf or should we be reviewing our school security plans to make sure our children are as safe as they can be while in class?

Says Glenn Beck:

This is really coming from hard evidence that our Government really does not want us to know per se. I mean, they've been alerting people, but they're been doing cryptically because they don't want widespread panic.

Writes Glenn Beck about the Perfect Day scenario:

It's the day that Americans are killed on an unprecedented scale. It's the day that no one, not even our children sitting in their classrooms at school, are safe. It's the day that seemingly isolated incidents all converge into the greatest threat this country has ever experienced or imagined. It's the day that the Islamist jihad against the West begins in earnest. It's "The Perfect Day" - and it's only perfect if you're a terrorist.

Hoping to warn people of the danger, Glenn Beck has been mailing out warnings and suggestions to his listeners advising what they should do and how they should talk to their local school and police officials.

In one of the emails, Glenn Beck has a piece written by author of Terror at Breslan -- John Guiduck -- who says the Perfect Day scenario would likely involve a mass hostage situation -- maybe at a school a la the hostage crisis at Beslan, Russia.

The more preferred, but more difficult to accomplish, attack is the "Mass Hostage Siege." Terrorists know that when they take hundreds of innocent people hostage and hold them for days they are really holding an entire nation hostage. By doing that they attract the attention of the news media, which helps them to accomplish their real goal, which is to spread terror as far and as wide as possible. It's the psychological impact that's most important, and nothing is better at promoting that than a Mass Hostage Siege, especially one that involves innocent children.

Pretty scary stuff, but considering what the evildoers -- both foreign and domestic -- are willing to do, it isn't unthinkable.

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Will Birthday Party Bans Sweep The Education World

A New Jersey school wants to ban birthday parties in an effort to protect children from the hazards of birthday cakes and other foods prepared for birthday celebrations.

While it seems preposterous now, I bet it is only a matter of time before birthday parties are banned in all schools -- including those in Northwest Indiana. If foie gras is illegal in Chicago and trans fats are prohibited in cities around the country, it is only a matter of time before birthday celebrations are verboten in Valparaiso and other South Shore Region cities.

After all, it's for the children!

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$491K Grant Targets Dropouts

Hoping to keep kids in school, the Feds have ponied up $491,000 in grant money to the Gary Community School Corporation to create a plan to assist students in danger of dropping out and those who have already quit school, reports nwi.com. Published reports contained few details of what the dropout prevention and retention plan would involve.

Says Gary Mayor Rudy Clay:

"It's about taking young people that have dropped out of school and putting them back on the paths of being good students and good taxpaying citizens."

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Undisclosed Nepotism Creates Firestorm For Gary School Board

Nepotism is the lastest charge against a controversial Gary School Board member who is best known for taking a trip to Japan -- $3,144 is still owed to Gary schools -- using Gary school funds.

Gary School Board members say they weren't told that they were hiring Gary School Board member Andrea Ledbetter's husband for a lucrative $30 per hour position with the school, reports Sharlonda L. Waterhouse in today's Post Tribune. News reports say the non-disclosure of the conflict of interest is contrary to state law regarding school hirings of relatives.

The Gary School Board hired the husband of one of its members for a job Tuesday without receiving a disclosure of the relationship as required by law.

The board voted to hire James Woodson, husband of Andrea Ledbetter, as a temporary Teamster at a salary of $30 an hour.

Ledbetter abstained from the vote, but did not acknowledge the marital relationship or that she would financially benefit from the employment during a discussion Tuesday.

Board members Debra Crawford and Darren Washington said after the meeting they were not aware they were hiring Ledbetter's husband.

"I don't know. I'm trying to find that out myself," said Crawford, head of the personnel committee.

Washington said he doesn't believe the hire was proposed to the committee as is custom, but simply showed up on the meeting agenda.

"That is wrong," Washington said. "There's no abstaining. If she knew it was her husband she should have revealed a conflict of interest."

Non-disclosure before board action violates the Indiana law, according to attorneys for the Indiana School Boards Association and the State Board of Accounts.

"Before the contract is entered into, the party must disclose the conflict of interest and the School Board must approve it at a public meeting prior to the action," said David J. Emmert, attorney for the ISBA.

The news comes not too long after a nearby school superintendent -- Michael Livovich of Hanover Community Schools -- wrote a scathing opinion piece in the Northwest Indiana Times stating:

My blood boils, however, when I see the apparent mismanagement of the schools.

The case that turned my skin blue was when a board member traveled to Japan (funded by the corporation) to visit schools because she stated "there were no schools worthy of visiting here." To their west is Hammond. South, there is Munster, Merrillville, Crown Point and many other school districts. I would even have welcomed a partnership with Gary here at Hanover for we are doing the job, as are all others with less money -- certainly less federal money! My community, as would my peers in other communities, would welcome the challenge.

No schools worthy here? She had another agenda, and it was not about kids!

But the whole thing makes me angrier than I can comprehend. When I heard the state was silent, I said the state has abandoned these kids. Although I would feel more comfort remaining silent, I simply could not -- not any longer!

There have been so many other examples of blatant misuse of funds, and who has been hurt? The kids and the staff, and there are many who desperately need to be lead by strong educators with ethics and morality.

The kids of Gary deserve the best we have. If the state is threatening to take the system over, what more data do they need? How much harm has to be inflicted on these kids -- kids who are just as deserved of the safe, loving educational environment provided by all the other schools in Lake and Porter counties.

The only way for Gary, Indiana to arise from the ashes of its failed dreams is to provide all of its citizens' children an excellent public education. While many are working hard to build up Gary, Indiana, it only takes a few focusing on their own personal self-enrichment to the detriment of those they are supposed to serve to give the whole community a bad reputation.

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