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."
You know it sister. That’s why both my girls own rifles and handguns and know how to use both. In addition, they can make their own ammo - loading shells and pouring molds. They’ve been hunting since they were 11. The younger is a crack shot, the older though looks all dainty and delicate but I’ve seen her field dress a deer in freezing weather and yell out “hey, do you guys want the liver?”
You go girl(s)!!!
And no more Saturday morning cartoons.
No wonder you had the bejesus scared out of you!
I see it as mostly a good thing. Yes, abuse can happen but there is also the point that it is easier to get rid of 'bad' workers without the unions insisting that they be given unlimited '2nd chances' and make firing just about impossible or too expensive.
You and I both know that's not true. There are some bad ones and some good ones. I submit to you that the same really is true in education- there are bad teachers and there are good teachers. And I agree the education system is flawed, but it does not make me or anyone else in my profession who is attempting to change it a bad or enabling teacher. Claim all you want that this wasn't a **personal** insult, but you singled me out when you said "There are only 2 kinds of government teachers: 1) Bad Teachers and 2) Enablers." Perhaps you meant to refer to the system in general and not teachers specifically. If you did not, then it was an attack on who I am, and I have to consider it personal.
There are no hard feelings about it, don't get me wrong. I am just the type of person who will defend myself when pushed. You may not believe me, but I have absolutely no problem with homeschooling, when it is done correctly. Same with church schools. I have seen, however, many kids (I can name 5 off the top of my head) who have personally left my class to be homeschooled, only to return again within the year, each one the worse for having experienced it. The reason? The parent didn't have a clue what to do and sometimes even used it as an excuse to keep the kid home so THEY wouldn't be punished for the kid not going to school. There have been two failed local attempts to form church-run schools, and they failed for one main reason- lack of parental involvement. I KNOW this is not the norm, and I am willing to admit that it is the exception to the rule. I guess, for those reasons, I do not want to paint a broad picture of ALL homeschool/church teachers being "bad."
I have never been the type of person to give in and throw in the towel very easily. I refuse to believe that my profession, the profession that has produced some very bright and talented children- I wish I could share personal stories, but I know you get the point- is evil and that it is hopeless to change it. If we all abandon it, then it IS hopeless to change. But I refuse to abandon it.
Then the kid’s a nut who needs to be put away for his own good.
I suspect you are right about this being merely a prank. My argument assumes that it was drill and questions why some so readily dismiss the idea as being foolish and further the ranting that our kids can’t handle five minutes of fear in a controlled setting.
Even if it was a prank, we should teach children to laugh it off. Instead we are teaching children to have no humor because the weakest links might be traumatized by a five minute joke. The feminization of America is now giving way to the Wussification of America.
Follow-up: the teacher who was on the field trip and the assistant principal have been placed on suspension without pay for the remainder of the school year, effective May 14. I personally think the principal should go as well.
People should be held criminally liable for this stunt. Appalling.
Bingo to that.
This is so insane I no long longer have faith in the public school system. Well actually I never did. This was on the front page of the BBC site. They love to print stories of brain dead Americans.
One of the local conservative talk shows pointed out that the kids were warned that there would be a “prank” during the retreat. During the prank the kids were told that there was a man with a gun was outside in the woods, but that he had not shot anyone. In other words, they tried to make the kids feel like their life was not in imminent danger. The teachers said this is a code red situation and we are going to turn off the lights so it will appear that no one is in this building. I think it was a poor choice of a prank, but the more I hear, the more I’m sure some kids overreacted and some kids probably figured out it was a prank.
Thank you for engaging in the battle! We support you. Are you familiar with The Frankfurt School's effect on American public education, education colleges and the NEA?
Alright, doing it that way in a High school may (a very big may) have been acceptable...but doing it to elementary schoolers? That’s just wrong.
I don’t care what they’re trying to teach those kids; you don’t pull something like that on children who don’t understand it’s not real.
In the Detroit area schools they were called "tornado drills."
Ping for the bad teacher/nuclear war thread...
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