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FBI To Battle Gunman At VHS
FBI SWAT teams will converge on Vermilion High School on February 22 after being alerted to a hostage situation. School faculty members will be taken hostage. But there is no cause for alarm - it's only a drill.
School shootings and the terrorist attack against a school in Beslan, Russia, have created significant anxiety among parents, students, faculty, staff and other community members across the country. The Vermilion Local School District works in cooperation with local, state and federal agencies to be pro-active in protecting its students and responding to emergencies.
On February 22 the FBI will use VHS to stage a practice hostage situation. Residents should not be alarmed by the presence of FBI vehicles, helicopters and mock rescue activities.
Role-playing has become one of the most frequently used training tools employed by law enforcement agencies. Role-plays are valuable in a variety of training situations. They involve simulations of real-world situations likely to be encountered by personnel in a wide range of law enforcement activities. By staging a hostage response training at VHS, the FBI will also be more familiar with the facility if a real situation should ever arise.
The mission of the FIB is to protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies and partners.
In June 2002, the FBI Office of Law Enforcement Coordination joined the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in working with campus public safety executives to help enhance the preparedness of their agencies to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from man-made and natural catastrophic events.
2/20/08
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