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. (Watch student recount incident, mother react Video)
"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."
But how stupid is u able to get... i have seen alot of people who are real retards, people who are complaining about everything and hits teachers (Here in my school)...
And that girl at the end of the article... "I was like, 'Oh My God,' " she said. "At first I thought I was going to die. We flipped out."
Personally i think it was a good idea.... i mean fuck what if it was real you still just gonna fucking lie there and cry for
your life? i think fucking not.
Simply 69 children could take a gunman out peice of piss.
perhaps more stuff like this is need from teachers , i mean they cant hit kids with sticks any more like in my day, that kind of puts you off being a menice, 6 whacks off a long piece of wood kind off has a calming effect. So the odd set up to terrorise the kids make work fine. Running into the middle of the maths lesson with a ski mask and a string off sausages around your chest wailing ....." alah ho akba" while tugging on a cord that only relases party poppers ..could be effective , especially at nursery school if they get a bit rowdy.
