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."
... that ought to scare the cookies and milk out of them.
They were at Falls Creek Falls in southeast Tennessee (nice place). While being incredibly stupid I think the motive might have been a “camp prank” style joke.
Again, not very smart with 69 11-year olds.
Sounds like a typical teachers to me. The kids can’t read or write....the teachers just babysit all day.
There wasn’t one, that I know of.
If some kids had staged a “fake gun attack” to “train” the teachers, they be up on felony charges.
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Down on the Animal Farm, teachers sleep in the farmer’s house. Kids get the barn.
I’ve skimmed through the replies on this thread and it seems that it’s practically unanimous that everyone here thinks the teachers’ heads should roll.
I’m of a different opinion, I think no harm, no foul. Sure the kids were scared, I say SO WHAT. Why, in this day and age, do we think that no one should ever face fear. Do we honestly believe that our kids will never have to be truly afraid for their lives at any point in the future? I don’t agree with the idea that a few amateur teachers can adequately train students how to react to a murder spree, their tactics of lay down and wait seem stupid to me. However I do admire them for at least trying to do something to prepare these kids for the possibility. I’m sure I’ll get flamed, but I don’t care. Poor execution of a not so bad idea is what I think. Give them a reprimand, but no need for heads to roll, IMHO. Waiting for the “these kids are scarred for life” reply. I know it’s coming.
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ALL fire drills inform the participants **prior** to the drill that it **is** a test and **not** the real thing.
In this case, the children were not informed, merely terrorized.
Finally, I agree with you, children do need drills in how to react in a hostage situation. The LAST people I would choose to teach them would be a government school wuss of “teacher” of modest intelligence at best.
I remember asking my teacher what good it would do to climb under a desk when the entire school would vanish in a blinding flash.
She told me to shut up and get under the desk.
Ahh - the innocent halcyon days of yesteryear when all we had to worry about was the instantaneous vaporization of the entire city.
Involved poor judgment? well duh!! you insipid jackass.
How the hell do these people become teachers? did they get their diploma from a box of captain crunch ?
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Free babysiting for moms who don’t like their children and for those moms who do like their kids but must work to pay the family taxes.
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Free babysitting for moms who don’t like their children and for those moms who do like their kids but must work to pay the family taxes.
Do you have sons that my daughters can marry?
Aren’t even TOY guns prohibited, under the zero-tolerance” policies? (At one school, even PICTURES of a gun can get you expelled! Not to mention DRAWINGS.) Of course, zero tolerance is intolerance.
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Be careful. One of the government teachers on this board, will “feel” personally insulted and report you to the administrator. ( eyeroll)
Another group of overeducated imbeciles heard from, what’s next?
Fire drills still happen with no warning to the children. At our school and every other school I’ve been at, the bell just rings in a certain way and the kids get up and leave. Over the last 10 years, we have had 4 genuine emergencies and the kids acted no differently than from a drill, because until they got outside and found out what really happened, they assumed it was a drill. Which is how it is supposed to happen - handle drills calmly in practice and when it is real, the drill goes calmly then also.
It was definitely criminal, and the district attorney should be pressing charges.
Under Tennessee law:
39-13-101. Assault. — (a) A person commits assault who:
(2) Intentionally or knowingly causes another to reasonably fear imminent bodily injury;
The teachers should be prosecuted for assault, there’s absolutely no question in my mind.
Putting students in a state of mortal dread, and hammering it home by having a disguised person pull on the doorknob, is nowhere near the same category as a fire drill.
Another group of overeducated imbeciles heard from, what’s next?
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Colleges of Education educate teachers?
News to me. I would classify it as indoctrinate teachers. :)
These teachers pulled a prank that went wrong. Someone should have thought ahead that telling kids there was a gunman on the loose so soon after the VT killings was about the worse thing they could have done. I suspect that several teachers will pay for this mistake with their jobs and the tax payers will pay out a settlement to the families.
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