Teachers at a high school in California worked with highway patrol officers to stage an elaborate hoax on the students. The officers entered classrooms on a Monday morning to announce the deaths of several students in drunk driving accidents over the weekend.
A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax — a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving.
As seniors prepare for graduation parties Friday, school officials in the largely prosperous San Diego suburb are defending themselves against allegations they went too far.
At school assemblies, some students held up posters that read: “Death is real. Don’t play with our emotions.”
Michelle de Gracia, 16, was in physics class when an officer announced that her missing classmate David, a popular basketball player, had died instantly after being rear-ended by a drunken driver. She said she felt nauseated but was too stunned to cry.
“They got the shock they wanted,” she said.
Some of her classmates became extremely upset, prompting the teacher to tell them immediately it was all staged.
I get angry when I hear of stupid stunts like this perpetuated by people 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 being a good way to teach them. Things like this shed a bad light on teachers everywhere, and I resent it.
A school guidance counselor even defended this latest hoax. Just read what this idiot said:
“They were traumatized, but we wanted them to be traumatized,” said guidance counselor Lori Tauber, who helped organize the shocking exercise and got dozens of students to participate. “That’s how they get the message.”
I’m appalled. A GUIDANCE COUNSELOR “wanted them to be traumatized.” Amazing. The only message the students got (thanks to this lightweight guidance counselor) was how stupid and unprofessional some educators can be. If I were a parent at that school, my child would be withdrawn immediately, and I would file a lawsuit again Lori Tauber, the school and the school system. There are times that I am ashamed to be a part of public education - and this is one of those times.
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