May 16, 2007

Teachers stage fake gunman attack on sixth-graders

MURFREESBORO, Tennessee (AP) — Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables.

The mock attack Thursday night was intended as a learning experience and lasted five minutes during the weeklong trip to a state park, said Scales Elementary School Assistant Principal Don Bartch, who led the trip.

“We got together and discussed what we would have done in a real situation,” he said.

But parents of the sixth-grade students were outraged.

“The children were in that room in the dark, begging for their lives, because they thought there was someone with a gun after them,” said Brandy Cole, whose son went on the trip.

Some parents said they were upset by the staff’s poor judgment in light of the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech that left 33 students and professors dead, including the gunman.

During the last night of the trip, staff members convinced the 69 students that there was a gunman on the loose. They were told to lie on the floor or hide underneath tables and stay quiet. A teacher, disguised in a hooded sweat shirt, even pulled on a locked door.

After the lights went out, about 20 kids started to cry, 11-year-old Shay Naylor said.

“I was like, ‘Oh My God,’ ” she said. “At first I thought I was going to die. We flipped out.”

Principal Catherine Stephens declined to say whether the staff members involved would face disciplinary action, but said the situation “involved poor judgment.”

Find this article here

And the question is:

Who on Earth thought that this was a good idea in any way, shape or form? Why would someone do something like this at any time?

I can see the logic in teaching the children what to do in such a situation, but is this really the best way to do so?

Will

popeyechicken

May 17, 2007

Incomprehensible stupidity (to say nothing of callousness).

Actually a thought just occurred to me. What if one of those kids had taken up the pro-gun rhetoric and shot the ‘attackers.’

A Rather Shady Mogwi

I’m so astounded that I read this out to CRC! *shudders* My closest comparison was during a ‘what to do in an earthquake’ speech where the speaker had about a dozen students stand OUTSIDE the room and beat heavily on the classroom walls when a certain point was reached. Since this school only had solid OUTER walls and classes were PARTITIONED off, the entire WING thought they were gonna die!!!

Krud

I would quit school. Period.

Ha, watch the heads roll…

I’d take my kids to another school, that’s for sure. For f*cks sake, idiots!!

findingsunshine

wow. Not the brightest idea in the world at all. If they had have told them all there was no Santa/Easter bunny/Tooth Fairy as well, they really could have made an afternoon out of it. I think it’s odd they did it on the last night of the trip… they had to have known the reaction this would have caused. This made me feel really ill. Those poor kids. They better be paying for the psychiatrists.

posthumouser

May 27, 2007

I have to think that the adults responsible for this couldn’t possibly have children themselves. No parent would do this to their own child, let alone anyone else’s. If a kid had pulled this stunt, they would be in custody by now. It was psychological terrorism, in simple terms assault.