Teachers stage fake gunman attack on sixth-graders


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."


Yeah... not thier best work...

Poor judgment is an understatement

I think they should do that on a regular basis like tornado drills. Remember, the only reason you are alive is because some nut case decided to take thier meds this morning.....

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Originally posted by DoubleDuece:
I think they should do that on a regular basis like tornado drills. Remember, the only reason you are alive is because some nut case decided to take thier meds this morning.....

I totally disagree. In how many schools in this country do you see students react correctly to fire drills, tornado drills... etc.? It's all a big game. It eventually desensitises them. I'd rather have students scared out of thier minds, hiding under thier desks, and blocking doors, then having them react foolishly, slowly, or not at all.

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They were told to lie on the floor or hide underneath tables and stay quiet.

Yeah, thats the ticket...lets teach the six year olds how to die without breaking a sweat. In 9 minutes dude at VT killed 30 stationary targets.

These teachers were idiots and need to rethink what they are going to do when someone is in the building with a gun and police response is 5+ minutes.

Having these kids hide under the desk to die isnt the option that needed to be selected

Besides that, there is no need to terrify small children, I probably would have punched my sons principal in the face.

There was no training value at all in this exercise, when children are that scared they essentially shut down.

You need to do a crawl and walk phase before you start scaring the crap out of kids.

Wow, this is gonna be good ...

A terror drill should be initiated. Fire drills have been a joke for years and decades. Besides, how many children die from school fires compared to school shootings?

Teachers should take this type of drill more seriously; don't make it a freakin' joke like the rest of the drills. The teachers and administrators that knew of this beforehand should be fired; NOT just slapped on the wrist. We may see some lawsuits from this in the near future ... which isn't the answer.

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Having these kids hide under the desk to die isnt the option that needed to be selected

Would you rather they roam the halls in an orderly fashion, or stand in a straight line and walk toward the exit?

Basically the only things that can combat this sort of incident are A: bomb shelters and B: armed guards.

or C. evacuate the building, unless they are in a doorless, windowless environment


If you aint gotta a gun, you gotta run hun

I grew up in California. We had earthquake drills. When an earthquake happened, everyone did what they were supposed to.

Back when we had wars, schools and kids did air raid drills. Everyone knew to duck and cover, and where the fallout shelter is.

We need to have madman drills; and they need to be better planned than hiding under a desk (because that worked so well in Columbine ). There are only 2 options in that situation: make distance from the shooter, or close with and destroy the threat. In Israel, the teachers are armed. In Utah, college students can carry weapons to class.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman#Sniper_fire_commences
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_High_School_shooting#Gun_Control
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concordia_University_massacre#Events
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_School_of_Law_..._subdued_the_shooter

Ordinary people with guns can minimize school shootings. In almost all of these attacks, it is stopped by someone using a weapon. The question is do you want it be the cops who first have to drive to the scene, the shooter after he gets tired of killing innocents and self destructs (or wait for him to let his guard down), a faculty member who has to first leave campus to retrieve their weapon, or the teacher in class who can engage the threat with the revolver in her purse?

I'd love to see the video on this