Poor Choice...to Say the Least.

[Katie]

MURFREESBORO, Tennessee (AP) -- 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 a 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."

=================================


Stupid idiots. if someone did that to my kid......:evil:

[Tinuvielsdreams]

I wouldn't participate if someone wanted me to do that to the kids I teach...In fact I would do everything I could to stop them
Kids don't need to be afraid anymore then they already are. That is very disturbing...

[Roseangelo]

I heard about this on the radio and they went to the school's website where they found (and read on the air) a press release FULL of a bunch of BS excuses for why this was done. It is reallyreally pathetic that this happened and everyone involved needs to be fired.

[Raven]

At most schools I know they have a system set up just in case some one does go around shoot at people, but this is going over the line. The staff that did this should know that this is something you dont mess around with, I hope any one that took part in this is fired or at least given a punishment of some sort.

[Cascadia]

I am sorry but I think that the staff members/teachers involved with this should be fired. This is the way of educating students on how to handle a situation like this. Right now, students of all ages are kind of edgy due to Virginia Tech along still trying to cope with the events that happened at Columbine 8 years ago. School is meant to be a safe place to be...sometimes it is the only safe place for some students.

[Katie]

The place they were at, Fall Creek Falls, is a place I used to go camping when I was a kid. It's heavily wooded and pitch black out there at night....I cannot imagine the shere terror.

[Warhorse]

Wow. What would have happened if one of those kids had a medical condition, like asthma, or a weak heart or something, or started to hyperventilate completely out of control? Or worse, what if the kids panicked and began jumping out of windows and trampling eachother, breaking bones and stuff. Talk about a big law suit in the making.

This sh!t keeps up, I wouldn't be surprised if more and more parents start getting together and open up home schooling communes or something, just to keep their kids away from all that BS!

[Tinuvielsdreams]

Yeah I thought about that too Warhorse...what if something had happened as a result of the fear and stress?
Well at least no one else will try it if the people who did it initially get punished.
It is just mind boggling that someone actually thought that it was a good idea

[iris]

Having a drill and showing the kids how to respond to the situation is a good idea-- that actually alleviates fear-- but how could anyone see a benefit to making people think they're going to die?

However, I wouldn't necessarily want all the participants fired. I'd put them all in training and mandatory therapy. This seems to me like the type of crazy plan the results from fear.

[Revan]

^ Exactly. That's why schools have "drills." I would be scared ****less if someone played a prank like that on me, and I'm 20 yo. I can't even imagine if I was 11.:x

[Swany]

I'd say thats child abuse. Mental and physical.

Is it not illegal to make someone believe their life is in danger?

[Roseangelo]

The teachers involved (and possibly not even all of them) are only suspended until June 1.

WTF? Fire these losers!

[SassyGal]

The teachers involved (and possibly not even all of them) are only suspended until June 1.

WTF? Fire these losers!

WHAT???? that is totally unacceptable! I agree with you Roseangelo, those losers should be fired:evil:

[zkarlette]

I can see it now... parents suing the school or the teachers for traumatizing their kids:ohwell:

[PipingPringle]

My God! What is wrong with people? Maybe instead of scaring kids half to death these teachers should have put their efforts into anti-bullying, tolerance and other programs that would prevent shootings from happening in the first place. Geez, just what kids need, panic and negativity in an environment meant for security and learning. Yes perhaps they need to be taught what to do in these situations, but do we actually set the school on fire for fire drills nowadays? This angers me.

[Rooish]

Wow, that might traumatize some kids. Those teachers should be fired. And parents should press charges.

[RaphistheBest]

My god how I hate morons. You would think that the school would have informed the parents first. I mean, HELLO! LAWSUIT! Every single one of those teachers should be fired. If I had a kid and they were on that trip, the second that I heard of this I would've IMMEDENTLY called a lawyer and to sue the sh*t out of that school.

I remember something happening to me one time when I was at a summer camp. It was a church camp and one of the last nights of being there we had a big bon fire kind of thing that everyone had to go to. In the middle of some random song about God one of the counslers jumped out of the shadows and started screaming that we were all going to die. He said that a nuclear missile was headed our way and the reason it was heading for that very camp was because terrorists wanted to send a message to Christians and Catholics. Now this was years before 9/11 so a lot of us had no idea why a "terrorist" would want to kill kids for being Christian and Catholic. Eventually this guy convinced almost all of the girls and almost all of the boys, it was crazy. So many kids were crying and screaming for the moms and dads, it was horrific.

My friend and I hadn't been paying attention until half way through his rant because we were just goofing off. We were friends with one of the other counslers and asked him what was going on and he didn't have a clue. The main counslers came up with this idea to teach us kids that because we were of a certain religion we could die. It was also meant to teach us that it was ok because God loved us and we would go to heaven as long we didn't betray the word of God. It really scared a lot of people and the counsler that we were friends with was pissed at his bosses for scaring so many kids into thinking that they were going to die before their 12th or 13th birthday. The day after that happened the counsler that had done the rant was walking around and laughing about it and my friend and I made a point to tell him that he was going to hell for that.