Teachers stage fake gun attack on kids

charlotte.com ^ | 05/13/07 | AP

[TornadoAlley3]

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- 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 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."

[OrangeDaisy]

Looks like this has gone national. The Murfreesboro City School good-ole-boys are gonna hate that!

Mufreesboro is in one of the counties surrounding the city of Nashville. It used to be a sleepy little college town, but has turned into a booming bedroom community. MTSU isn’t the most liberal university on earth, but the degree of liberalism varies from department to department. Isn’t the education department always liberal even at a conservative university? Many of the elementary and secondary schools in M’boro were educated at MTSU.

[mkjessup]

They were told to lie on the floor or hide underneath tables and stay quiet.
Hey...that's what I was told and made to practice during the cold war 40-45 years ago. Of course, even when I was small I had an alternative plan in mind. I was going to fight my way out of the school and head for home and die with my Mom if the air raid siren went off and Commies were going to drop the atomic bombs. Even then I knew the schools would just become mass incinerators. Anyway, never happened, we both survived and I still love my Mom. Happy Mother's Day, Mom

You're a good son, no question. However there is nothing to suggest that all schools would have been 'incinerators' if nuclear attack had taken place. Schools in downtown areas? Granted, not a lot of chance anywhere near ground zero. But in the suburban areas, the 'duck and cover' routine would have saved lives, and I remember those days well.

Unfortunately for our collective societal memory, we have more than a few revisionists and smart asses who always like to pipe up 'yeah, ducking under a desk is REALLY going to save us from an atomic blast', but that is just stupidity on display - we all KNEW that nothing could prevent a direct atomic hit from wiping us out, BUT: we DID know that if we were under a desk at the time the blast wave blew any windows out that it might keep us from being slashed to ribbons by flying glass shards and other debris. THAT was the idea behind 'duck and cover' in the classroom, and closing our eyes was of course to prevent accidental blindness if we were to be close enough to see the actual atomic 'flash' at the detonation point.

I can remember notices sent home with us during the Cuban Missile Crisis asking parents to donate canned goods, fruit juices, crackers, blankets, etc. in the event that Khrushchev and Castro made good on their threats, and the support was phenomenal, nearly 100 percent.

The Federal Civil Defense Administration was one of those rare examples of a government program that did exactly what it was supposed to do, and did it well.

[DieHard the Hunter]

What a bloody stupid thing to do to kids. Experiential Learning is one thing, but this is ridiculous!

*DieHard*

[ExSoldier]

Heck there is even a federally funded program: Troops to Teachers that has been quite successful. I stumbled into teaching after I married a teacher. I guess it was the right thing to do, I've been a past social stuides Teacher of the Year at my former school in 2001 and a candidate for my current school, just this year. I expect I'll get the title next year.

I'm at the top of my game. I'd better be, since my oh so tough inner city school scored a county-wide record of SEVEN THOUSAND OUTDOOR SUSPENSIONS in a single school year on a student population of just 1,800! Probably the same hundred kids, too.

I know lots of teachers who've been assaulted. Security folks too. Including one just returning this week after six weeks medical leave resulting from a student assault. OTOH, I've only been challenged once in a physical manner. I put that kid on the floor so hard the door to the class shuddered. When I transferred, I guess the rep I earned from that little incident, had preceeded me. So I've had exactly ZERO problems so far. The secret of my success? Simple, I treat all my students exactly the same way I treated the members of my rifle platoon, waaaaay back when.

[Still Thinking]

I thought the Sovs tested air-delivered weapons with a yield in excess of 100MT, and that it was only limited to that so the crew had some chance of survival. Let me recheck.

[WasDougsLamb]

"The children were in that room in the dark, begging for their lives, because they thought there was someone with a gun after them,"
That is outrageous! What in the H*LL were those teachers thinking? Thats just it!... They WASN'T thinking. What idiots!

[Otaku6]

My bad I got mixed up between styles of ICBMs. Thought both sides used MiRVs.

All warfare is deception.

[stephenjohnbanker]

www.drunkenteachers.com

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Go Buy The Kid/Kids Brand New AK-47’s/Binkies At The Gun-Show,,,Take A Class Picture During Bayonet Practice,,,
Send To Teeechers,,,

Feeed Teeechers To Alligators...

Kick Teeecher’s ASS !!!

[XR7]

We’re gonna see more of this guerilla theater.
It’ll be just like tornado drills or fire drills.
Let’s scare the kids so they will always be anti-gun.

[MaxMax]

These are some very Sick and Deranged teachers.

[oldenuff2no]

Children in fear of being killed. I do everything I can to prevent this for my child and all the rest that I work with.
This was cruel, this was mean, this was criminal!!!!!
There are a few teachers I have talked to that would't mind being able to “communicate” with the idiots who scared the crap out of these innocent children. Most teachers would lay down their lives to protect the children in their care.
When you stop and think about this situation it just gets worse. Intentionally and needlessly making a child scared for their life is way beyond excusable.

[geopyg]

“Had one of them been a chaperon on this field trip, there’d have been one dead “bad guy” on site and he would have fully deserved his fate.”

That was my thinking too. And wouldn’t there have been some parent’s as chaperones on this trip, which would increase the odds of someone being able to defend themselves and the kids?

[highlander_UW]

Firing seems so insufficient a punishment...drawn and quartering would begin to approach it.

[Darkwolf377]

Within a week the teachers will sue someone for defamation of character. Harry Reid will have a press conference about it and talk about “the chill wind of this Republican administration trying to stifle the exchange of ideas in the classroom” or something.

[Silly]

Government education at work. I wonder, if one of those students had been armed and shot one or more of the perps, how would the school be handling this now?

[wintertime]

during the weeklong trip to a state park (from the article)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Sorry,,,but in this day of teacher abuse, there is NO WAY any parent should be allowing their child of any age to go on overnight **week long** trips.

The potential for sexual, physical, and emotional abuse from the teachers and the other kids is far too great. And,,,these particular kids were only in the sixth grade.

[jocon307]

I would really strangle a person who did this to my kid.

[Thrownatbirth]

When a decision is reached by a consensus of educators, poor judgement is the rule rather than the exception.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

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.

Moron. Good luck on the unemployment line...