Yesterday, I was listening to talk radio, Glenn Beck, in the van.

Link

First, I am not a huge fan of Mr. Beck’s alarmist tendencies.  He is also way too sarcastic for my taste.  Sarcasm is ok peppered in with witty banter.  What Mr. Beck doesn’t seem to understand …..sarcasm ISN’T witty banner.

He was going off on how fat Brittany Spears looked at the MTV awards.  Personally, I didn’t think she looked bad, especially post two children.  But, whatever.  Obviously Mr. Beck thought she was a hog.

I started to turn the dial (oops showing my age), er, I started to push the button to change station when one of his teasers for the next hour caught my attention.  Words like terrorists, school buses, schools, children, grabbed my immediate attention while in the back of my head I realized those words shouldn’t be together in the same sentence.

I listened to the next hour, knowing I’d regret it, knowing Mr. Beck was going to “alarm” me.  After all he is one of those people who doesn’t scream the sky is falling….only talks about the probability it will fall (sarcastically of course), what will happen, and how at the end of the day he’s an optimist.  Huh?

Here is what I learned.  Thousands of school bus radios were stolen on the west coast.  Seventeen school buses in Texas are missing (private school buses).  There are reports from various districts around the country of “foreign nationals” (pc for Muslim men) buying up old school buses and applying for drivers jobs.

It is Mr Beck’s assertion that these things are linked.  The sky isn’t falling because he can’t prove the link, but the probability of it falling is pretty great.

He talked about a terrorist plan of action.  I wasn’t clear on WHOSE plan it is supposed to be.  His hypothetical, a gov source, whatever.  He talked a lot about not being able to talk about it.

The jist is this….Terrorists are getting the buses to get close to or inside schools to blow them up.  Maybe they are using them to practice driving to get bus driving jobs; maybe they will paint them with a schools name and do the normal route, then show up at the school.  Mr. Beck says if your child’s school is “taken over” by terrorists, DO NOT GO TO THE SCHOOL, because the terrorists may plant crowd pleasers.  (My name for secondary bombs aimed at by standers and emergency workers.)

There is more to this, to be aired today, or read about on his website.

It worked.

I was alarmed.

Knew it would happen.

I called my husband at work and told him about it.  I called my aunt who drove a school bus forever to ask about it.  She told me while the bus driver could keep the front doors closed to prevent someone from coming on the bus, the back door is unlocked.  (It has to be for emergency use.)  So if the driver is distracted at the front of the bus, anyone could enter through the back.

I don’t know if the missing buses, radios, and increased “foreign national” interest in school bus driving across the country are connected…..but it might be.  When it comes to my kids, “might” is too much of a chance for me to ignore.

I am calling the transportation office today to check on protocol for school bus hijacking.  Is there anything?

Because I was alarmed, when my 11 year old came home from school we talked.  I asked him, “What would you do if an angry man got on the school bus and took it over?”

He said, “I’d do whatever they said.”

I said, “What would you do if someone threw a grenade on the bus?”

He said, “Get off as fast as I could, anyway I could.”

I said, “That’s what I want you to do if anyone ever takes control of the bus.  I want you to get off.  Even if that means leaving your back pack, standing on a seat, and diving through a window.  But if you can, try to make it out the back door, even if the bus is moving.  Treat the hijacker like a live bomb that’s about to explode no matter what he says.  (Some say the hijackers on the planes of 9/11 told everyone they were safe, they wouldn’t be harmed, so they could control the passengers.) And if you can’t escape then get the bigger kids together and FIGHT.”

We talked about different situations at school.  I told him when they go into lock down to keep his ears peeled (since they don’t tell if it’s a drill or not in junior high).  If he hears screaming, or shooting, climb out a window, just GET OUT.  If he can’t do that (some rooms have no windows), then get a bunch of kids, armed with pens and scissors and wait beside the door.  When that door is forceably opened (protocol has teachers pulling blinds on doors and locking them) attack together.

We talked for a good hour or more about it.  And the whole time I was thinking, this is like a Die Hard movie gone bad.  Except I’m asking an 11 year old to be Bruce Willis.

Are they coming for our kids?  Is this all related to some big plot or just random coincidence?  It seems extra stupid….one way to unite this country for blood is to start killing our children.  I believe it would push even the most passive among us into battle mode.

Is this going to happen?

I don’t know.  Glenn Beck doesn’t know.  The only people who might know, aren’t talking.

All I can do as a parent is give my child as much self defense information as possible and hope if it happens, it doesn’t happen here.  Selfish?  Yeah, it is.  But I get that way about my kids.

Do your kids ride the bus?  Do they go to school?  Have you talked to them about “what if?”

If terrorists come for your child or their school, will your child fight?  Escape?  Or be led like a sheep to slaughter?

It is an alarming thought.