Teachers stage fake gun attack on kids

Teachers stage fake gun attack on kids

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (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 week-long 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."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-13-fake-gun-attack_N.htm?csp=34

But parents of the sixth-grade students were outraged.

LOL! Stupid liberals complaining about terror drills.
 
Good intertions (making kids aware) does not always translate to good judgment.

Oh by the way I am far from a Liberal and I think it was a rather stupid stunt to pull.

There is a great deal of things they could have done, far short of this to bring awareness and seriousness to a very scary and unfortuneltly all too real possiblity.
 
So in the end, the teachers that decided to do this drill and what exactly did they teach the students?

I fail to see any positive lesson to be learned. Well, except that 11 year olds should be carrying. :confused:
 
So in the end, the teachers that decided to do this drill and what exactly did they teach the students?

Their reasoning was that they talked it over with the kids and asked what they should do next time & the like. Not saying it was smart, but they did talk about what happened and what could have gone better, etc. Similar reason for a fire drill, or bomb drill, I suppose. (Though I always wondered what happened for a firebomb drill...do you go out into the hallway and cover your head, or go outside away from the building?)
 
The staffers committed an assault against those students under Tennessee law, and conspiracy to commit assault, assuming the newspaper is reporting the facts correctly.

I hope to read about criminal prosecutions in the near future.
 
11 year olds don't exactly have a lot of actions they can take against an armed gunman. (yeah, that's redundant, I know)

I'm sure educating the teachers would have been a lot more productive.
 
I don't know how to feel on this one. It was obviously wrong if the administration had no knowledge of what was going to happen, but if they did, the whole story has yet to develop, then I guess it kind of falls into the same class as a fire drill.

I definitely think that the kids should have been warned about what was going on. I also think that for this kind of thing to occur in useful way, there needs to be some sort of protocol for what is the appropriate response from the kids.

I'm torn on this one because I feel that the teachers may have overstepped some boundaries, at the same time I feel that drills like these will become more and more necessary, unfortunately.
 
The staffers committed an assault against those students under Tennessee law, and conspiracy to commit assault, assuming the newspaper is reporting the facts correctly.

Wow, trial with jury in a matter of minutes.
 
I wonder what the teachers would be saying if this "drill" had been perpetrated on them without any prior knowledge? I suspect the story would have had a few sentences about lawsuits filed within hours of the "drill". This will be interesting to watch how it shakes out.
 
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