Where is the line?

[Shimmer]

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.

I can't see how anyone thought this was a good idea. I mean, really? Who thought this up?

 

[user79]

wtf

this is so fucked up. I hope those teachers get fired. How on earth did they think this was a good idea???

 

[Shimmer]

I have NO idea. Really...who thought this was a good idea? What POSSIBLE object lesson could be taught here, other than "what we'd have done if it were real..."

What possible thought pattern brought them to the conclusion that this was beneficial to ANYONE???

 

[Beauty Mark]

How could several adults, including an assistant principal think that's a good idea? Besides being traumatic, exercises like these are pointless. How is hiding under your desk really defending yourself against an armed shooter?

 

[giz2000]

that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of...my 11 year old son would have had a heart attack (literally) and I would have had someone's head for that totally brainless idea...what the hell were they thinking?

 

[Shimmer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beauty Mark How could several adults, including an assistant principal think that's a good idea? Besides being traumatic, exercises like these are pointless. How is hiding under your desk really defending yourself against an armed shooter?

Exactly.
There's NO WAY this was at all helpful...because an armed shooter is there with the specific intention of pain and murder, whereas the teachers are running through the halls in this exercise just scaring people...they're not thinking like a killer.

Bloody fucking ridiculous it is, and not at all something I'd be happy if my kids' school pulled.

 

[Beauty Mark]

I hope they get fired. I think about the stupid pranks my friends played on kids when we were camp counselors in high school and how much trouble they got in.

 

[*Stargazer*]

I am probably the least litigious person in America. That said, I'd be threatening lawsuit after lawsuit until all responsible parties were removed from their jobs.

What boggles the mind about this is that MORE than one person thought this was good idea. I mean, obviously, they sat down and discussed it and NO ONE raised any objections? Unreal.

 

[mzcelaneous]

That is HORRIBLE! Those kids are scarred for life now all to teach them a "lesson"?! Yea...lesson is: don't trust school officials.

Geez!

 

[eighmii]

At my middle school they did something like that.. not as extreme though. There was a gun threat made by a kid.. (my school was bad. They found 2 guns my 8th grade year) so my principal got a fake gun and held it up to the kids head and was like "Do you think its funny now.. do you think its a joke?"

Needless to say there was a huge lawsuit. But what was weird was the principal didn't get fired. Just moved to a desk job for the school board.

 

[knoxydoll]

We used to have drills like this (less extreme) from grade school to high school. In grade school we had my whole school evacuated to another. It was practice for gas leaks, or bomb threats. We also did storm, fire, and intruder drills also. In high school we have lockdown procedures which were usually just when the police would do locker searchs for drugs (my school was nicknamed cocain willy). Most students wouldn't take these things seriously and usually just goofed off. I wish in high school they would have done something like this, but it's too much for elementary kids to handle I think.

 

[Beauty Mark]

Quote:

Originally Posted by eighmii At my middle school they did something like that.. not as extreme though. There was a gun threat made by a kid.. (my school was bad. They found 2 guns my 8th grade year) so my principal got a fake gun and held it up to the kids head and was like "Do you think its funny now.. do you think its a joke?" Needless to say there was a huge lawsuit. But what was weird was the principal didn't get fired. Just moved to a desk job for the school board.

While that was distasteful as hell, I think your principal was making a decent point that threats aren't funny and guns are serious business. I'm going to guess the students could figure that your principal wasn't a crazed shooter. These teachers and assistant principal, OTOH, have a really gave know means for the kids to deduce that.

 

[MxAxC-_ATTACK]

my high school had a few bomb threat drills. nothing extreme. But we did have an awful "bell system" it was something a long the lines of "3 long bells and 2 short ones meant a bomb"

2 short 1 long and another short bell meant suspicious activity on campus

1 short 1 long meant fire

Those are just examples and aren't accurate but thats how it was
Now tell me WHAT high school kid is going to remember 10 types of bell sequences ? It was not thought out well at all

 

[makeupgal]

In high school, a loooooong time ago, we had a drill where people had fake bones sticking out and bloodied up, taken to nearby hospitals, etc. but we all knew about it in advance and could choose to participate or just carry on about as normal if we chose not to participate. We were also teenagers. How anyone could decide that it would be a good idea to scare the hell out of these kids, and possibly traumatize them for life, is beyond me. Those people need a good scare themselves. Had that happened at my son's school, all of you would have been reading about me in the papers!

 

[kimmy]

i can see where they meant well, but really...this just wasn't a good idea. have these people ever heard of the boy who cried wolf? i'd be afraid that my kid wouldn't believe "there's a gunman here to kill you! escape, run!" if they heard it again (for real this time) and that's kind of unsettling.

 

[MAC_Pixie04]

IMO, despite this being a terrible idea, there's NO way you can "prepare" yourself for an armed shooter on a school campus. When we had fire drills in middle/high school, we bullshitted. We walked the "safety" route to the athletic field, the teachers took role to make sure every student was accounted for, and we screwed around and class was cut short and we made nothing of it. Then in my 11th grade year, there was an actual incident. A kid decided he was going to make explosives with dry ice in Sprite bottles, which were as common on the grass as students themselves. Had the dumbfuck not detonated one accidentally and mangled his own hands, there would have been nothing done in preparation for a student or staff member picking up one of these Sprite bottles and being seriously injured. When that bell sounded, it was utter chaos. People were running in every direction but the "assigned" route to safety. Students had fled campus in fear and couldn't be accounted for, the staff had a plan according to their drill, but they had almost no control over the situation and it was an actual emergency. You know how it works, someone says "Dry ice bomb" and the next person says "firecracker bomb," then the next kid says "armed gunman with hand bombs and grenades," and by the time it trickles down, you've got a damn nuclear terrorist on campus according to the students. What drill prepares students for that?

I'm not saying there shouldn't be fire/earthquake and lockdown drills, but something like this? Not only is it traumatic for children and stupid of these adults to do, but it's IMO ineffective. We had a debate in class about emergency procedures and why they won't work in a real emergency. Duck and cover under a desk will protect you from falling debris should an earthquake occur. Duck and cover under a desk isn't going to stop you from some unstable creature with a gun; it's not kryptonite. I've seen the footage from Columbine, those poor children were huddled under that desk, which they were taught through drills, and that didn't stop Eric and Dylan from standing on top of those desks and shooting right through them.

I dunno what was on the minds of the faculty members responsible for this "exercise" but I can say that it definitely wasn't the best interest of the students and staff at Scales Elementary.

 

[JillBug]

that is horrible! i can't imagine having something like that happen.

not too long ago my school had a bomb threat and we had to evacuate the school. the marines and bomb sniffing dogs were called in to search and no one could get their cars from the parking lot for 6 hours. they finally let kids get picked up by their parents. a lot of kids were absent the day after too. it was the scariest thing ever. 3,000 high schoolers walked down the street to the middle and elementary schools and it was total chaos! i cant imagine being in elementary school and thinking there was a person with a gun trying to get me. that is totally wrong.

i feel bad for those kids. not only are they scared, they might not believe it when there actually is a gunman on their campus.

 

[Beauty Mark]

Are drills only so the leaders (fire captains, for instance) know what to do?? Everyone raises good points about no one taking them seriously. We had a fire drill at work the other week, and adult folks thought it was a joke.

 

[MAC_Whore]

How did the idiot assholes who did this think it was a good idea?

If one of those kids had a cell phone and called 911 the police could have very well showed up and killed one of the staff members who were staging /executing the drill. They pretty much invited that possibility in the front door and call me an asshole, but they almost deserve it. Really. When you are that stupid, I really don't feel that sorry for you. What dumb fu#ks.

Drills are great tools are a helpful part of preparedness, but only if executed properly.

When you perform actions such as those teachers did and fail to notify that it is a drill, it really is more of a crime than a drill for all intents and purposes.

 

[ElectroCute]

Honestly, if that had happened to me at that age I don't think I would have coped well at all - I would have been terrified for a long, long time afterwards and I wouldn't recover (mentally) for a while. That may sound very dramatic but that is what would happen, and I'm sure it would be like this for other people. I cannot believe they could do this and think it's smart - kids that age would not be able to cope well with something like that and it was an amazingly stupid idea!