The Foreign Service Journal, May 2003

4 AFSA NEWS • MAY 2003 D espiteworld events, ourmorning routine here inRome appears normal. Myhusbandgoes towork, taking a dif- ferent route than he took yesterday. I put the kids on their 15-seater school bus, run errands, and work at the com- puter—and try not to think too hard. Because when I think, I end up worrying about my children. The resolve of the usually plucky Foreign Service commu- nityhas been sorely tested in recentmonths. The churchbomb- ing in Pakistan and the murder of a senior diplomat in Jordan have upped anxiety levels, because now we’re not talking about only embassies, military bases and warships — which were bad enough. Barbara Green and her daughter were sitting in church. LarryFoleywas standing inhisdriveway. In the wake of the 1998 African embassy bombings and, of course, after the Sept. 11 attacks, security has been tightened at U.S. official installations worldwide. But things happen more slowly when you’re dealing with over- seas schools; and a fast-moving truck filledwithexplosives only takes a fewsec- onds to reach its target. That target is, by definition, “soft.” Once official installations get hardened, security-wise, unoffi- cial American establishments such as schools aremore vulner- able than ever. Most overseas schools are not protected well enough because, until Sept. 11, no one ever thought terrorists would go after children. Now we’re not so sure. Right after Sept. 11, a secular international school here in Rome applied for a grant from the Office of Overseas Schools to upgrade security. They were turned down, ostensibly due to lack of funds. Meanwhile, evenbefore Sept. 11, theDepartment ofDefense School inAnkara, Turkey, had an armed guard on each school bus and an extremely tight security barrier at the school, with police checking each vehicle before it proceeded to drive any- where near the school building. Whenwill theU.S. government take the safety of diplomatic dependents as seriously as it does military dependents? Tobe fair, in some cases upgrading security is either not fea- sible or downright illegal. It’s not always a question of getting theU.S. government todivert funds. U.S. lawoften forbids the mission fromdoinganythingmore thansuggesting securitymea- sures to schools; it cannot actually implement or, inmany cases, fund those upgrades. Local governments and laws also can get in the way. Schools themselves usually don’t have the money, either. Yet even if there are funds available to improve security, school boards or even parents are sometimes reluctant to do so, because “nothing has ever happened here before.” Apparently a school bus has to be blown up before we take protecting our kids seriously. Congress appears to be taking thematter seriously, and has directedState to carryout a soft-targets “needs assessment,”with particular attention paid to overseas schools. AFSA has asked Congress for more funding for protection of soft targets. But frustrated diplomatic families would love to know how long it’s going to take to see results on a post level. Meanwhile, we’re scrambling to figure out what we can do right now. There are a few things we can do. We can request high fences, emergency drills, IDchecks, armedguards, police escorts, and bus-driver training. We can request that bus yards be guarded at night. Parents can contact the RSO and schools before they even bid on a posting, and ask hard ques- tions. If there’s onlyone school at post, and that school has inadequate security, FSpar- ents need to press the point, and consider withholding a bidon that post until some- thing is done. U.S.missions can tell schools that they “only feel comfortable referring families to schools with adequate securi- ty measures in place.” After all, the State Department pays the tuition for these children. Recently,wehavehad some successwithour school inRome. Newsecurityupgrades includingarmedpolicemenandnewfenc- ing have been put into place. Littleby little, ifwe insist on it, the systemwill change, because it’s awfully hard to staff a mission abroad with just single offi- cers, and it’s awfully hard to run an overseas school with no American students. My husband and I chose this life, accepting the risks accom- panying it. But we sure don’t want to sacrifice the safety of our children for the causeof diplomacy. If theU.S. governmentwants its diplomatic families to continue to sign up to serve overseas, even in a hostile world climate, it must work to make family members as safe as possible. Meanwhile, it’s been left to the par- ents to start the ball rolling. ▫ Francesca Kelly is a free-lance writer and editor of the online magazine Tales froma Small Planet (www.talesmag.com), wh ich supports and informs Foreign Service members and other Americans overseas. The views expressed here are those of the author only. The mother of four chil- dren, she has served with FSO husband Ian Kelly in Milan, Leningrad, Moscow, Belgrade, Vienna, Washington, Ankara and Rome. FS VOICE: FAMILY MEMBER MATTERS ■ BY FRANCESCA KELLY Hardening Our Soft Targets Little by little, if we insist on it, the system will change, because it’s awfully hard to staff a mission abroad with just single officers, and it’s awfully hard to run an overseas school with no American students.