High school mixes algebra, homeland security

FT. MEADE, MD. — Flanked by hand-drawn posters about terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda and the Ku Klux Klan, Tina Edler solemnly addressed her ninth-grade students.

"One new vocabulary word today is 'agro-terrorism,' " she said.

The meaning -- deliberate sabotage of agriculture or food supplies -- flashed on a screen behind her. Opening their school-issued laptops, the teens quickly found a possible example on the Internet.

In 1989, a group calling itself the Breeders hit headlines when it threatened to release thousands of crop-killing Mediterranean fruit flies in Southern California unless the government halted aerial pesticide spraying. The spraying continued, and scientists never could determine whether the group played a role in the Medfly infestation that year. Its members were never identified.

"That counts," Edler said. "It's part of history."

Meade High School, where Edler teaches, made its own history this year. The long-troubled public high school become one of the first in the nation to offer a four-year course in domestic security. The goal: to help graduates build careers in one of America's few growth industries.

"This course will help me get a top-secret security clearance," said Darryl Bagley, an eager 15-year-old. "That way I can always get a job."

Meade offers its 2,150 students a standard high school curriculum, including electives like advanced calculus and carpentry. But the 90 ninth-graders who chose the new homeland security program this last school year focused on topics torn from the headlines: Islamic jihadism, nuclear arms, cyber-crime, domestic militias and the like.

New themes even were added to their science, social studies and English classes.

"There's a lot of homeland security issues in 'Romeo and Juliet,' " said Bill Sheppard, the program coordinator. "Like, how do you deal with infiltration in your own family?"

After two years, the students can choose a related career track -- like law, public service or engineering -- to prepare for college or a job.

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Joppatowne High School in northern Maryland started a similar program in 2007. And two more schools, one near Baltimore and the other in the state's western panhandle, will follow next fall, said state education department spokesman Bill Reinhard. Schools in other states, including California, are watching closely.