Sphere: Related ContentThe 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.”
The Median Sib
9 Responses to “Teachers Stage Fake Gun Attack on Kids in Tennessee”
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May 14th, 2007 at 8:45 am
“Extremely poor judgment’ is the kindest thing to say about such irresponcibility.
May 14th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Aside from the obvious concerns in this ridiculously misconceived “learning experience”, I wonder what kinds of other poor judgments such adults would make. I would not want one of them teaching my children. It is hard for me, as a teacher, to imagine more than one educator willing to go along with a colleague who suggested such a thing.
TMS: Joan and Ruth - thanks for reading and responding. I’ve had so little time for blogging lately that I feared nobody would even bother to see if there’s anything new here anymore. Thanks!
May 14th, 2007 at 11:06 am
OMG! What can you say? It is so over the top. I know that if this happened to my kids I would be freaking out! I don’t know how they can even think this was ok.
May 14th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Tennessee Teachers Stage Fake Gun Attack in School…
In an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL in Tennessee some teachers apparently thought it was a good idea to scare the ever-living peedoodle out of a bunch of 6th graders.
This is one of those stories that make you think WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE!!!!!
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (M…
May 14th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
That is almost unbelievable!! I’m with Joan - I can’t imagine how more than one teacher went along with that. You’d think someone would have been the voice of reason.
That’s just unbelievable!
May 14th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
May 14th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
I am appalled that these teachers thought this was a good idea. Only time will tell what damage this may have done to one or more students. If I were the parent of a child on this trip I would demand the teachers receive some kind of disciplinary action. I am flabbergasted!
May 15th, 2007 at 5:19 am
Can This Insurgency be Saved?…
The threat is real….
June 12th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
[...] who should know better. It was just a little over a year ago that teachers at a Tennessee school terrified students with a fake gun attack. Teachers go through classes on how to work with children - and I have never heard of lying to kids [...]