May 14, 2007
Wilco. Tango. Fox.
All I can say is, What the hell were they thinking?
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — 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.
…
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.”
That’s gotta be the understatement of the year. Parents are–understandably–pissed. I appreciate the need for emergency preparedness, particularly when children are involved, but traumatizing those children doesn’t seem to me to be the best way of going about that.
[h/t Crooks and Liars]
Cara said,
May 14, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Dumbasses. File this under “stuff they saw on Boston Public (remember that show?) that seemed like a good idea and worked out fine on TV”… Seriously. Dumbasses.