Officials ponder school bus terror attacks

Homeland Security report: officials ponder school bus terror attacks, risk assessment lessened since September

PRB News reported Friday, Feb. 29, on the Department of Homeland Security’s latest input to discussions on the school bus terror attack scenario after reports in Sept. 2007.

Concern is growing about lacking funds for school bus safety studies and strategy development six months after an Aug. 2007, special appropriation approved by congress.

In a report released to PRB and the Christian Action Network, Homeland Security said there have been some encouraging developments since September when officials were looking into the disappearance of several busses in the Houston, Texas area.

“There was concern that they could be used in some type of attack,” the report stated.
Since that time, four men were arrested in connection with the bus thefts. “It turns out they were scrapping and selling the buses for profit,” the report stated.

A man in charge of North Carolina school bus safety is focused on a nightmare terrorism scenario: simultaneous bomb blasts on busses in several cities across the country.

“Imagine what that would do,” said Derek Graham, transportation chief with the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, president of a national school transportation group.

“Imagine the economic impact if parents weren’t confident their children would be secure when they take the bus to school,” he added. “The nation’s school bus system is the largest system of public transportation” - in America - and, “It is just very vulnerable.”

In response to this threat, more local school bus drivers are training in counter-terror activity – including a morning check under buses every day to spot anything odd or out of place.

Graham and other school transportation leaders fear the federal government isn’t taking their concerns seriously.

The federal Transportation Security Administration has yet to begin a safety assessment ordered by Congress in August. …

Last August, legislation signed by U.S. President George Bush gave the Transportation Security Administration, part of the Department of Homeland Security, a year to develop an assessment of school bus security.

“Five months later, though, little has been done,” Graham said. …

Democratic U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, House Homeland Security Committee member, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, committee chairman, learned the TSA has yet to develop a plan for how to go about the assessment.

“School buses have always been soft targets,” said Etheridge. “I’m kind of disappointed. In just a few months we expect this report, and I don’t see the urgency.”

Regarding the bus thefts, Houston police said the area was hit by a band of thieves that specialized in stealing school buses and selling them for scrap.

Detectives said the group has been linked to at least eight bus thefts. An anonymous tip led detectives to two members of the alleged group: suspected ringleader Mauro Yanez, 36, and Bernabe Moreno, 40.

By the end of December, a third suspect, Samuel Morales, 20, was also under arrest, and a fourth man, James Leon Jackson, 23, remained at large, police said.

Thankfully, Jackson has also been apprehended. Police said thieves took the buses to a northeast Houston scrap metal dealer for up to $1,200 each, proceeds depending on vehicle weight.

A chop-shop caper might be our first, most likely interpretation of a missing busses, but the diligence is still warranted – for a look into the possible terrorism angle.

Another thought: the purchase of school busses is simple enough for terrorist planners – and impossible to detect – any plot involving school children as targets could easily include busses.

It would seem unlikely, in fact, that terrorist planners would want to steal busses for an attack, as that would only draw unwanted scrutiny. 

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