Muskegon, Mich.-Tuesday, September 20th, began like any other day in the Muskegon Area School District. Parents brewed cups of coffee, read the morning paper, and woke kids up before heading off to work. Children got dressed and gulped down hasty breakfasts then loaded onto busses for the trip to school. But for 25 students from area high schools and colleges, regular routines ended when their busses arrived at the morning's destination-an emergency preparedness drill site along a blocked-off stretch of country road.

By 9:30am, the students had been painted with make-up simulating blood, labeled with tags listing different injuries, and crammed into a school bus that had been tipped on its side in preparation for the morning's exercise. Then an alert went out to emergency personnel from the Muskegon County Sheriff's Department, as well as several area fire departments and med teams. And that's when things got ugly.

"Emergency Dispatcher to Car 103. There is a bombed school bus at Durham and Holton-Whitehall Roads with multiple injuries. Proceed to the scene of accident."

According to Daniel Stout, Chief Deputy for Emergency Services with the Muskego County Sheriff's department, a mock terrorism exercise needs to be as realistic as possible. But other organizations in the surrounding areas (and even nationwide) don't mind having little fun with their drills. In a May 2002 exercise, the attacking terrorist group was called ELF, an acronym for "Ethical Liberation for Fish". Another drill was planned using "Wachos Against Relaxation and Recreation" as the terrorist group. A Santa Monica drill invented a group called "The Wild Bunch," bringing memories of Butch Cassidy's legendary outlaw gang to mind. But Stout avoided casting a humorous group in the scenario he wrote, and while adding a touch of realism to the scene, he landed himself in hot water.

"The exercise will simulate an attack by a fictitious radical group-who believe everyone should be home schooled," says the script for the drill.

"Under the scenario, a bomb is placed on the bus and detonated while the bus is traveling, causing the bus to land on its side and fill with smoke," writes Lisa Menendorp of the Muskegon Chronicle. "But the name and the exercise used in the scenario-bombed out-with homeschoolers across the nation."

"Homeschoolers have never committed violent acts against public schools or any terrorist acts," state Home School Legal Defense Association's website (www.hslda.org) "Comparing us to the most dangerous people in the world is a terrible insult and a travesty."

Homeschoolers across the nation rose to protest the drill, and Stout issued a public statement later that evening. "I wrote about a fictional group and fictional scenario for the exercise," he stated. "This fictional group and scenario made reference to people who are against school-[it] was not meant to offend any home school students. IT has nothing to do with any home school population."

In spite of Stout's repeated reference to "a fictional group and fictional scenerio" for the exercise, the truth remains-homeschoolers are obviously not fictitious, nor can they be placed on the same level as "ELF" or other imaginary terrorist groups. The claim that the scenario had nothing to do with homeschoolers was eradicated by the scenario itself. In addition, Stout's statement only tried to justify his actions without offering any apology to the homeschooling population.

Thankfully, the Muskegon Area School District offered a sincere apology in a statement issued Tuesday evening. "[We] shared the disappointment of others when we learned that the-emergency preparedness drill referenced home-schoolers as the fictitious group responsible for a mock disaster," wrote Superintendent Michael Bozym. "[WE] did not construct the scenerio- [which was] unfortunately clouded by the choice of this fictitious group. As educators, we believe that the first and most important teacher is the parent-we sincerely regret offending [homeschoolers]."