Posted on 05/13/2007 3:04:17 PM PDT by 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."
Looks like there’s going to be some teaching vacancies at that school.
“Looks like theres going to be some teaching vacancies at that school.”
And there should be fewer vacancies in the local prison. I would press for criminal charges if my kid were there.
Ping.
What could they have been thinking that would justify this?
POOR JUDGEMENT? -it’s way beyond THAT!!
And yet if a student made comments like that he’d be suspended, arrested, renrolled in remidial school and spoonfed mind altering drugs the rest of his stay in the “system”.
Grrr.........
I’m reminded of the song lyrics from Pink Floyd......
“When we grew up and went to school
There were certain teachers who would
Hurt the children anyway they could.
By pouring their derision upon everything we did
Exposing every weakness no matter how carefully
Hidden by the kids.
But in the town it was well known
when they went home at night
Their fat and psycopathic wives
Would thrash them within inches of their lives.”
Who knows but one can hope the fate of these teachers is similar............
It is time to cycle back to the old Boy and Girl Scouts. Also we need gun safety class again.
What were they thinking?
The insane among us have supervisory control of our kids. Lovely.
They just taught an entire class of kids how to die in disgrace.
I’m sure that somewhere there are teachers who do a really top-notch job, leave their politics at home and produce excellent results. All we ever hear about though, are the fools, the self-appointed political officers and the automatons with no judgment, common sense or sense of proportion.
Unreal.
If it were my kids, I would make it my mission to make these imbeciles cry. Personally. Each and every one.
What a good son you are!
We did the “duck and cover” drills in the early sixties in our grammar school, too.
Then we did one better—we crouched down along the hallway walls so we wouldn’t be cut down by all the glass windows(the real tall ones—remember the big wooden pole we used to open the top sash—you could have jousted with that thing!).
No one bothered to explain that we were only 12 miles from NYC—which means that in a hydrogen bomb blast, our whole town would have been incinerated.
Absolutely no need for this sort of “training.”
The only training they need at schools is a few responsible adults armed and with good aim.
“We did the duck and cover drills in the early sixties in our grammar school, too.’
Duck and cover from nuclear attack or tornadoes is one thing. Terrorizing young children like this is insane.
Oh my, oh my, oh my. Much as I dislike lawsuits, I think that the parents of these kids ought to end up owning the entire school, tax base of the county, and earning capacity of the teachers for the rest of their lives, (whatever they can earn in state prison, that is.)
And this was supposed to accomplish what? If they wanted to make a point on what to do in case of a gun attack couldn’t they have just told them without scaring the bajeebee’s out of em !!!
and insisted that teachers apply for concealed carry permits.
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