Posted on 06/12/2008 2:00:27 PM PDT by Snickering Hound
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — On a Monday morning last month, highway patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to announce some horrible news: Several students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend.
Classmates wept. Some became hysterical.
A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax — a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving.
As seniors prepare for graduation parties Friday, school officials in the largely prosperous San Diego suburb are defending themselves against allegations they went too far.
At school assemblies, some students held up posters that read: "Death is real. Don't play with our emotions."
Michelle de Gracia, 16, was in physics class when an officer announced that her missing classmate David, a popular basketball player, had died instantly after being rear-ended by a drunken driver. She said she felt nauseated but was too stunned to cry.
"They got the shock they wanted," she said.
Some of her classmates became extremely upset, prompting the teacher to tell them immediately it was all staged.
"People started yelling at the teacher," she said. "It was pretty hectic."
Others, including many who heard the news of the 26 deaths between classes, were left in the dark until the missing students reappeared hours later.
"You feel betrayed by your teachers and administrators, these people you trust," said 15-year-old Carolyn Magos. "But then I felt selfish for feeling that way, because, I mean, if it saves one life, it's worth it."
Officials at the 3,100-student school officials defended the program.
"They were traumatized, but we wanted them to be traumatized," said guidance counselor Lori Tauber, who helped organize the shocking exercise and got dozens of students to participate. "That's how they get the message."
The plan was to tell the truth to the students at an assembly later in the day. But word that it was all a hoax began to spread before the gathering. Tauber said some counselors and administrators revealed the truth to calm some students who had become upset.
Oceanside Schools Superintendent Larry Perondi said he fielded only a few calls from parents, while the PTA chapter said it had not heard any complaints. Perondi said the program would be revised, but he would not say how. And he said he was glad that students seemed to have gotten the message.
"We did this in earnest," he said. "This was not done to be a prankster."
Oh? I thought the leftists in education and elsewhere were firm believers in the fallacy that "the ends justify the means."
Jeez. When the teachers aren’t having sex with students they’re scaring the hell out of students.
Sometimes both at the same time...
LOL...Virtually the same exact scenario unfolded at my high school in Western PA during the same timeframe...except I think the stoners were wearing Motorhead T-shirts.
It is cruel and it’s obvious school officials didn’t think this thing out. I mean, there has to be at least a few really unpopular “emo” type kids at that school. They shoulda said they were the ones who were killed.
This can serve as a lesson for all the lies authority figures are going to tell you later in life.
Interesting, though, that apparently this was done with the voluntary cooperation of a significant number of students. I’m withholding judgement here. At least one girl interviewed seems to think it was effective, and the “missing” students were obviously all consulted beforehand, and none of them saw fit to register a formal complaint in advance of the event. Maybe the teens know what gets through to teens. I do hope the parents of the “missing” teens were consulted in advance, though. If not, I definitely have a problem with this.
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True, but most teenagers nowadays have spent a lifetime in front of extremely realistic violent TV shows, movies, and video games. It would be tough to get anything but giggles out of them with the act you described.
>>we wanted them to be traumatized
Where are the grief counselors?
How many kids do you think decided to go out and get drunk after this.
Don’t believe everything you hear, kiddos.
I’m sure the spouses and older children of police officers are well aware of how dangerous it can be. They’re also well aware that the purpose of the work justifies the risk. That’s quite different from the purpose of partying teenagers drinking and driving. Many police officers suffer permanent psychological scars from things they see at the scene of drunk driving accidents — much deeper scars than any of these kids will suffer from their brief involuntary participation in this well-intentioned hoax.
Headline 14 months from now...
Oceanside school district settles out of court for undisclosed sum....
Interesting, though, that apparently this was done with the voluntary cooperation of a significant number of students. I’m withholding judgement here.
Its an astonishingly stupid thing for the school to do. I wonder what the school would do if, for instance, a group of students "voluntarily" got together and planned a similar charade -- maybe something like "Johnny and Billy said they are coming to the school tomorrow with guns because they are unhappy with how they have been bullied in school."
No doubt the school administration (and the local police) would consider that a great way to teach everyone how important it is to respect one's classmates. -- NOT!!
http://www.archive.org/details/WAROFTHEWORLDS2 (free mp3 download)
scared lot's of folks (morons, mostly).
To me this is like the police crying: ‘WOLF!’ now these youngsters will have even less faith in the police.
A boy’s doodles of stick figures with guns are so traumatic and threatening to the mental health of the other inmates that the perpetrator needs to be expelled... but public employees in a position of authority telling you your friends are dead is just a valuable teaching tool.
These people should be filing for unemployment next week.
Here is the point.... did the parents give permission for their children to be either used or be victems of this “life lesson?”
What if there are kids in that school that had lost parents or brothers and sisters to a drunk driving accident....
” er... uh....hmmmm maybe not such a good idea”
http://abcnews.go.com/US/comments?type=story&id=5005097
This ABC News story has a long comment section afterwards, with comments from a lot of parents, including a couple who have children at this school. The parents are overwhelmingly supportive of it. I’m not going to fault the school officials for it, when parents were involved in planning and executing it, and there seems to be little or no protest from the other parents.
Here’s the lession I would get if I were a student there - don’t believe anything these idiots tell me.
They may know it on an intellectual level, but the purpose of this excercise was to bring it home on an emotional level.
So I'm with Joe here, I'm sure that a policemans family knows intellectually that he may be injured or killed, but they really haven't experienced the emotional impact such an event would have.
If it is good for the children, it certainly is reasonable to consider that it may be 'good' for the family of a police officer.
I don't think it's good for either, and someone should get a severe reprimand.
Why are school teachers so dumb?
the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax
++++++++++++++++++++++
Never lie unless you’re a politician whose career path requires it.
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