Charlotte County mum on terror threat to schools
Reporter hounds Charlotte County school officials about terror threat and school safety preparations for feature article – no response
PRB News contributing reporter Debra Ferrell reported Tuesday she has faced difficulties obtaining responses from Charlotte County, Virginia, to questions about preparedness there against possible terrorist threats.
Ferrell, a veteran reporter in rural southern Virginia, said she hoped to gauge the readiness of schools and school systems within striking distance of the Muslims of America compound in Red House – which is in Charlotte County.
Martin Mawyer, president of Christian Action Network, has been working to expose the Red House Islamic compound and dozens of others affiliated with Muslims of America and their founder, Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, as training grounds for terrorists.
Ferrell has written several articles about Islamism impacts on public schools and colleges recently for PRB News – past articles focused on the teaching of Islamism in public and publicly funded schools outside Virginia.
“During recent attempts to verify that a readiness program is in effect, or at least in the works in Charlotte County, home of the Red House, Virginia compound, I was given the old Hollywood shuffle,” Ferrell said.
“For days, my calls were either not taken, sent to voice mail, or passed off to various school board officials who would either “not be the person to talk to,” or “sick and out of the office indefinitely,” or even “tied up all week long with back-to-back meetings.”
Ferrell can’t report what the county’s position on preparedness issues is for the record, but she said she has her intuitions on the matter – reading between the lines, or the lack thereof.
That’s all we have to go on for now, she added. “Officials appeared to be petrified to talk about it, much less plan for it,” Ferrell said.
“I can only hope that things are not as bleak as they appear and a dynamic plan of action is discreetly in place.”
As a resident of the area, a mom and grandmother, Ferrell said she has her strongly held views, hoping schools and school systems choose a path of readiness to any threat.
“It is clearly critical that schools, particularly those in close proximity to compounds such as Red House, act now to create plans of hierarchy that will aide rescue workers when such an emergency occurs,” she said.
“Hopefully, these plans will be in place before it’s too late,” she added. “Think of how easy it is for any of us to walk into a school and go wherever we please. What would stop gunmen from doing the same thing?”
Her question remains, “Would our schools be prepared to deal with such an assault?” she said.
“Do they have readiness programs in place with protocols for working with first responders such as law enforcement, fire departments, rescue squads, and hospitals?”
Ferrell said she would keep PRB readers posted, and hopefully file a report for the record soon.
Several independent attempts to reach school administrative leaders in Charlotte County by PRB News directly were unsuccessful, and messages are yet to be returned.