Teachers Scare Children with Fake Gun Attack

OhDear · 05-21-2007, 11:20 AM

Click here: Teachers stage fake gun attack on kids.

I do not know where I was, but I missed this news til just last night. This does make me quite angry. I find it unbelievably sick. What does everyone here think? Does anyone want to justify the teachers' actions?

What recourse do you think the students and parents have?

Grrrr!

Quote:

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (May 14) - 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."

If this has been discussed here and I missed the thread, please forgive me for posting it again.

OD

pensacola_niceman · 05-21-2007, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OhDear

Click here: Teachers stage fake gun attack on kids.

I do not know where I was, but I missed this news til just last night. This does make me quite angry. I find it unbelievably sick. What does everyone here think? Does anyone want to justify the teachers' actions?

What recourse do you think the students and parents have?

Grrrr!

If this has been discussed here and I missed the thread, please forgive me for posting it again.

OD

Actually, children like to be tricked. I told my nephew once I was taking him to Disneyland. Instead I took him to an old burned-out building and said "look, Disneyland burned down." He cried and cried. I thought about taking him to the real Disneyland, but it was getting late.

Hio · 05-21-2007, 12:26 PM

Yes people could contest that it was done in "poor judgement" but you can remember that back in the 80's there were bomb drills and most of the time the kids were not told that it was a drill so they were scared to death aswell. Then in cali in the 90's there were earthquake drills. Yes i can side on the point of 'what the fuck are they doing' but its just a step up now that schools must do in this time of schooling where there are shootings left and right now involving kids and guns.

tadpole256 · 05-21-2007, 12:27 PM

I am pretty sure I posted this somewhere already...

tristanrobin · 05-21-2007, 12:29 PM

If even one of these children are in a real situtation involving a gunman(men) and hostages, and they have a good idea what to do, this was well worth whatever parents gripe about it.

pensacola_niceman · 05-21-2007, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hio

Yes people could contest that it was done in "poor judgement" but you can remember that back in the 80's there were bomb drills and most of the time the kids were not told that it was a drill so they were scared to death aswell. Then in cali in the 90's there were earthquake drills. Yes i can side on the point of 'what the fuck are they doing' but its just a step up now that schools must do in this time of schooling where there are shootings left and right now involving kids and guns.

People my age would remember nuclear bomb attack drills in school - as if crawling under your desk was going to offer any protection from a nuclear attack.

Hio · 05-21-2007, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tristanrobin

If even one of these children are in a real situtation involving a gunman(men) and hostages, and they have a good idea what to do, this was well worth whatever parents gripe about it.

I wholeheartly agree with you their tristan

Quote:

Originally Posted by pensacola_niceman

People my age would remember nuclear bomb attack drills in school - as if crawling under your desk was going to offer any protection from a nuclear attack.

Yeah you say that now where you know the effect and damage that a nuclear bomb can do, when you are a child the teachers arent going to say "nuclear bomb drill kids, but dont bother hiding under your desk if we get hit by a nuke we are all going to get flash incinerated, your skin will melt off...but you wont feel a thing because every atom in your body will be disintergrated by the nuclear radiation, heat, and force of the explosion before your nerves register the pain....but you can hide under your desks if you want". NO! they say hide under the desks to keep hope in the kids hearts and have them knowing they are safe. Not just die and not have a care in the world.

America first · 05-21-2007, 01:23 PM

I think the assholes should be fired, and never be around children again, plus the parents should sue the crap out of the adults that did this..
there are better ways to teach childern.

tadpole256 · 05-21-2007, 01:28 PM

I agree with AF.

OhDear · 05-21-2007, 01:30 PM

I would think several of the students may have suffered post traumatic stress disorder. It matters not that the drill was staged, the reality of how they must deal with what they could only reasonably think was happening, is what would give them the ptsd.

And a reference to the air-raid drills, those were called drills...and as frightening as the possibility that everyone was preparing for the 'real thing' I do not know of any school that presented a drill under the guise of it being a real attack.

And Tadpole, I am sorry, if you posted it already, I did not see it.

OD