A handful of high-school teachers passed around two tiny vials Thursday ? one filled with a few drops of amber liquid, another with a pinch of white powder.
That?s all it would take of some chemical substances to kill hundreds of people, they were told.
In reality, these vials just contained some oil and kitchen spices. They were used to demonstrate a teaching tool for discussing biological or chemical terrorism and were part of a two-day seminar for Harford County school officials developing a new homeland security magnet program at Joppatowne High School.
The program would be the first of its kind in the nation, said Frank Mezzanotte, Harford County Schools? supervisor of technology education and occupational programs. School officials hope that classes would start in the fall of 2008.
“The magnet programs give students relevance to why they?re in school, why they?re taking math and science courses,” Mezzanotte said. “It gives them a classroom environment where everyone shares a passion.”
The long-term goal, Mezzanotte said, is to take advantage of the growing job market contributing to homeland security or emergency response. By channeling interested students into smaller, specialized programs, schools can create smaller classes and give the students better preparation for college or a career field, he said.
“If, say, I?m applying to be a deputy with the police, I can say I already have a background in geospatial technology or threat analysis,” Mezzanotte said.
Developed with support from the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center and EAI Corp., the magnet school would direct students into areas of study suited to three aspects of homeland security: chemical and biology science, law enforcement and criminal justice, and information and communications technologies, said Mary Doak, a program analyst helping to create the curriculum.
After taking an introductory course in homeland security and emergency preparedness, students would take three courses from one of the three “strands,” Doak said. Each would culminate in an internship or special project related to their chosen field.
On Thursday, various experts from ECBC presented what the Department of Homeland Security and emergency personnel would have to do in the event of a chemical, biological, radioactive or nuclear attack, and officials toured several ECBC facilities on-base. Response to natural disasters or disease outbreaks was also considered.
“We start off talking about terrorism … but as we saw with Hurricane Katrina, there?s a big slice of natural disasters almost guaranteed to happen every year,” said Lars Skinner, WMD Consequence Management Specialist for ECBC.
The conference concludes today with tours of several test facilities and laboratories.
