Group criticizes mock Iowa school shooting drill

A mock school shooting training drill involving a teen who vents his anger over illegal immigration by using violence has angered an anti-illegal immigration group in Iowa, which claims the fictitious scenario is in poor taste and has a political agenda.

The four-hour exercise scheduled for Saturday at Treynor High School would include police, firefighters, hospitals, government officials and others. Officials said the drill's fake scenario would be based on a school shooting involving two teens, including one with ties to a white supremacist group who was angry with illegal immigration. A description of the exercise said the teen's frustration stemmed from an influx of minorities into the community that lead to economic instability and sparked racial tensions.

Robert Ussery, state director of the Iowa Minutemen, an anti-illegal immigration group, criticized the training drill's scenario.

"I think it's terrible that they're trying to paint people who believe in enforcing our laws as criminals," he said.

But exercise director Doug Reed said the scenario incorporated the immigration issue to get Homeland Security funds to cover the training exercise. To qualify, Reed said, the exercise needed to be about terrorism, which the federal government defines as the use of violence to intimidate or coerce a government or population as a means to further a political or social objective.

Reed, who is the county's EMS coordinator, said he's received several emails from upset people but characterized them as being misinformed about the intent of the exercise, which he said is to train emergency responders.

He said it was unlikely such as scenario would ever play out in the western Iowa community.

"It has no reality attached to it," Reed said. "It is completely fictitious."

Ussery didn't buy the explanation: "If they want to do a terrorism exercise, they could do one with a terrorist coming across our southern border and attacking our schools."

Details of the scenario were not supposed to be made public in advance of the exercise so as not to influence participants, but the information spread Wednesday and Thursday through social media websites. The online campaign urges people angered by the scenario to contact Reed or Republican Rep. Steve King. King's office declined Thursday to comment.

- By TIMBERLY ROSS, Associated Press