Teachers stage fake gunman attack on sixth-graders aka what the hell is wrong with people

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http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/05/13/faked.attack.ap/index.html

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."

― Edward III, Monday, 14 May 2007 17:40 (sixteen years ago) link

Never woulda happened had those kids all been allowed to use their 2nd Amendment rights.

― kingfish, Monday, 14 May 2007 17:42 (sixteen years ago) link

I can't wait to see what the Sex Ed and Drug Awareness classes in that school are like.

― Michael White, Monday, 14 May 2007 17:43 (sixteen years ago) link

Yeah if we had tried that in the school where I worked a kid would've pulled out a .9mm.

― Ms Misery, Monday, 14 May 2007 17:46 (sixteen years ago) link

ILX OTM

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 May 2007 17:48 (sixteen years ago) link

of course!

― Mark G, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 08:24 (sixteen years ago) link

Yeah I've been laughing about this story for 30 hrs.

― HI DERE, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 12:06 (sixteen years ago) link

said the situation "involved poor judgment"

that's one way of putting it.

― grimly fiendish, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:30 (sixteen years ago) link

jeez... i heard about this, but i didn't realise the kids involved were only eleven. what the fuck were they thinking?

― stevie, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:31 (sixteen years ago) link

i went to a summer camp once where we were "kidnaped" with no warning and we thought it was real. we were bundled into cars and told we would be shot. in retrospect i can't believe it happened. but there seems to be a history to this kind of thing?

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:32 (sixteen years ago) link

Un-fucking-believable. You know a handful of those kids are going to be scarred for years.

― mitya, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:34 (sixteen years ago) link

Maybe they'll shoot some people in high school

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:35 (sixteen years ago) link

Sorry.

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:36 (sixteen years ago) link

Next year, they will just tell the students that their parents are dead.

― Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:39 (sixteen years ago) link

Jeez. What's this world coming to? Teachers can't have sex with their students without being sued, they can't pull a simple prank without this... Sigh.

― StanM, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:44 (sixteen years ago) link

It should be no surprise that this happened in a town that spells its name MURFREESBORO

― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:54 (sixteen years ago) link

i went to a summer camp once where we were "kidnaped" with no warning and we thought it was real

I remember camp counselors and scout leaders pulling tricks like this when I was a kid. I was never kidnapped, but counselors would pretend that there were gunmen/axe murderers and have us run around on these roleplaying missions that we thought were real. It was pretty fun at the time. Definitely intense, but I don't think anybody got too upset.

The context is different nowadays and doing this on a school-sponsored trip is a huge mistake, but I totally buy into the "poor judgement" line they're handing out. Could this be blamed on a generation gap, where you have teachers brought up in a more innocent time really overdoing it for a generation of kids who are brought up in fear/terror?

― kingkongvsgodzilla, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:55 (sixteen years ago) link

I can't wait to see what the Sex Ed and Drug Awareness classes in that school are like.

Monty Python's Meaning of Life to thread.

― kenan, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:55 (sixteen years ago) link

"We got together and discussed what we would have done in a real situation," he said.

WTF??? Aside from how monumentally, heinously stupid, cruel and negligent the whole thing was, and how traumatizing it's going to be for the kids, what exactly could be learned from it? What WOULD they do in a real situation, duck and cover?

― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:57 (sixteen years ago) link

the lesson they learned is that most 6th graders would tremble and cry and that one kid who doesn't like to get undressed for gym would pee himself a little.

― chicago kevin, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:58 (sixteen years ago) link

People just don't like fun anymore.

― Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:01 (sixteen years ago) link

That's what I'm saying.

― kingkongvsgodzilla, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:04 (sixteen years ago) link

I went to college near there, the University of the South.

― Jena, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:06 (sixteen years ago) link

i went to governor's school there! mtsu, baby

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:07 (sixteen years ago) link

See? You both grew up to be well-adjusted, normal, er...

― StanM, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:11 (sixteen years ago) link

Knowing Tennessee schools, the whole thing was probably supposed to be a lesson about prayer or the bible or something

― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:12 (sixteen years ago) link

I have a friend who was raised in an Orthodox Jewish household in Manhattan (Ramaz, anyone?), and thus was sent to crazy camps for most of his childhood. At one of them, every year, they would break into kids' bunks in the middle of the night dressed as Israeli soldiers, and all the kids would have to get up to go fight the intifada in the forest outside.

Now that is what I call TRAINING.

― the table is the table, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:18 (sixteen years ago) link

This story is just plain wrong for so many different reasons. What ever happened to a good old fashioned fire drill?

― j-rock, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 01:39 (sixteen years ago) link

i went to governor's school there! mtsu, baby

I took courses at MTSU. they have some good music/film/pop culture programs there.

― Edward III, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 15:39 (sixteen years ago) link

none of them involved terrorizing the students, afaik

― Edward III, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 15:41 (sixteen years ago) link

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