Althouse: Teachers stage fake gun attack and terrorize sixth graders.

May 14, 2007

Teachers stage fake gun attack and terrorize sixth graders.

Principal admits they showed "poor judgment."

38 comments:

Sixty Bricks said...: I truly hope that those "teachers" are fired pronto. I can hardly believe that story.; 5/14/07, 8:56 AM
Unknown said...: I know. what the hell were those teachers thinking? Maybe that the kids need to be prepared for the very likely scenario that gunman will invade their school/field trip, whatever, when actually it is EXTREMELY unlikely. I think the media hyping of gun attacks causes this crazy mindset.; 5/14/07, 9:08 AM
Tim said...: Thanks to tenure and the iron-grip that teachers' unions have on state legislatures, it is doubtful any will be fired, let alone disciplined to any appreciable extent.

The process itself is so extensive and costly the most likely outcome will be a few forced transfers.

Regardless, we all know vouchers are the real threat to public education - not systemic, embedded incompetency and inaccountability. Oh no. It's the vouchers.

Stay vigilant!; 5/14/07, 9:24 AM
Unknown said...: Amy -- No, the acedemics have always had that mindset. Well, as long as I've been acquainted with them.

Note the response the teachers had the children act out -- hide under tables crying and wait for the gunman.

Tells you a lot about the mind-set.; 5/14/07, 9:26 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Principal Catherine Stephens declined to say whether the staff members involved would face disciplinary action, but said the situation "involved poor judgment."

Nice to see staff is running mock drills without the principal's knowledge. Yet another example of our crack educational system at work.; 5/14/07, 9:33 AM
MadisonMan said...: I'm curious: where did people think this incident occurred before they read the dateline? I assumed it was in the south. And it was. Does that make me some kind of bluestate snob?; 5/14/07, 10:05 AM
TMink said...: My understanding of the local tradition is that this happened on "prank night."

My guess is that it was more prank than learning opportunity. About firing teachers, I don't know. There are things worth firing teachers over, and I am not a fan of tenure and the teacher's union.

But I am not sure thie stupid prank is reason to fire anyone. The teacher's should appologize, and pay for any short term counseling the kids might benefit from, and they should have to listen to the kids and parents be mad at them, but I am not sure about firing.

Trey; 5/14/07, 10:11 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Let's not jump from saying this is terrible to saying the teachers should be fired.; 5/14/07, 10:23 AM
Drew W said...: Updates to Murfreesboro, Tennessee's Scales Elementary School agenda, week of May 14-18. In light of the regrettable outcome of last week's mock gun attack on the Sixth Grade class trip, the following future events have been canceled:

The Fifth Grade Preparedness Drill For Radioactive Waste Encircling School Grounds And Rising At One Foot Per Minute, With Resultant Genetic Mutations.

The Fourth Grade Reaction Assessment Following False Reports Of Compulsory Murfreesboro-Area Dog And Cat Euthanasia.

The Third Grade Testing On Coping Mechanisms After Being Told Your Parents Are Giving You Up For Adoption And Never Loved You Anyway.

The Second Grade Assembly On How To Deal With The Invading Aliens Who've Just Overrun Our Planet Because Of Their Insatiable Hunger For Child-Flesh.

The First Grade Annual Leave A Human Skull In Every Kid's Desk Day.; 5/14/07, 10:27 AM
MadisonMan said...: Let's not jump from saying this is terrible to saying the teachers should be fired.

Too late! Everyone is entitled to an education for their kids that doesn't cause any problems what-so-ever. If that doesn't happen, well, someone has to PAY!

It's the American Way.; 5/14/07, 10:49 AM
Gary Carson said...: After being assured it's not a drill, the rational response by the students would be to find a weapon and kill whoever was pushing against the door.

As pointed out above, the irrational teachers never thought of that possible response, they just assumed hiding under the furniture is the response that would be taken by everyone.

I commented on this earlier this morning. The real problem is that drills like this one tend to make students less safe, not more safe.; 5/14/07, 11:17 AM
Joe said...: Let's not jump from saying this is terrible to saying the teachers should be fired.

I made no such jump; the minute I read the story I said the teachers should be fired. The principal should be fired as well--if she didn't know, she has demonstrated such incompetence that she has no business being in that position.

Of course, as tim said, the teacher's union will ensure absolutely nothing will happen.; 5/14/07, 11:39 AM
halojones-fan said...: As Gary Carson and others have pointed out, the issue here is not so much the drill as it is the encouraged response. "Hide under something and hope the bad guy goes away." Yeah, see, that's what they did out at Virginia Tech, and all that accomplished was to get a lot of people killed.

Run from a knife; charge a gun.; 5/14/07, 12:04 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Too late! Everyone is entitled to an education for their kids that doesn't cause any problems what-so-ever. If that doesn't happen, well, someone has to PAY!

Well that's kinda the issue isn't it? Was this a drill or a prank? If a prank then evidently the teachers aren't teaching. If it was a drill, then what exactly was the point other than to scare the crap out of a bunch of kids and have them hide under desks, which is just as effective as duck and cover was in the 1950s.

I don't think its too much to demand accountability that those in the educational system actually educate.; 5/14/07, 12:09 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Let's not jump from saying this is terrible to saying the teachers should be fired.

Why not? People that are this clueless about the effect of this scary scenario on children that are in their care should not be allowed to be around children. Possibly not dogs either. Who knows what other damage they have done to students over the years.; 5/14/07, 12:31 PM
MadisonMan said...: Hoosier Daddy (Have I ever mentioned how often I have the Zombies' Time of the Season trapped in my ear since you came here?) : This prank or learning event (laugh) is obviously something that went way wrong and wasn't given more than 2 seconds of thought. I think anyone could agree with that.

The best course of action is that those responsible apologize, and the rest of the world downplays this instead of reinforcing the notion that this was horrible horrible horrible for the children -- a self-fulfilling prophecy IMO. My suggestion for all parents involved: Tell their kids this was a ridiculous idea, perhaps with good intentions, that yes there are bad guys out there, but it's unlikely they'll affect you directly. Life isn't cozy. Sometimes it's best to fight back. Sometimes it's best to flee. It's hard to tell in the midst of something which tack will work, although I do like the charge the gun flee the knife mantra. That's easy to remember, at least.; 5/14/07, 1:07 PM
TMink said...: Dust Bunny Queen wrote: "People that are this clueless about the effect of this scary scenario on children that are in their care should not be allowed to be around children."

Color me clueless, but to what effect do you refer? The fight or flight response? That the children were uncomfortable for a few minutes? That they will be ruined for life? To which effect do you refer?

This is a sincere question.

Trey; 5/14/07, 1:15 PM
Methadras said...: Frankly, after reading stories like these, it's blatantly obvious that vetting process for teachers is non-existent. It's also painfully obvious that there is no greater threat to our children than teachers unions. This is not a statement I make lightly given the fact that I have many friends in the educational field in the K-12 system. Some are quite good, and a few are mediocre, but relatively harmless.

What teachers unions have done to our schools and our children is a crime. Year after year of using the power of collective bargaining to shackle entire school districts with bad contracts, malicious tenuring of bad to criminal teachers and without a second thought to the children they are obligated to teach. Teaching is a noble profession, but it is infested with the horrors that are teachers unions. Dismantle the unions now, let teachers suffer the same consequences of their bad performances and good performances that any other worker has to go through and you will see an eventual weeding out and competition with commensurate pay of the good teachers.

The teachers unions are steadfastly for the unions, not for the teaching and educational welfare of our children. If you think otherwise, you are delusional.; 5/14/07, 2:16 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Trey, some of the effects on the children. Obviously not all children will have the same reactions.

1. They have learned not to trust the teachers who pulled this cruel prank on them. In the future they probably will look on all adults and authority figures as untrustworthy. The teachers are supposed to be in loco parentis. Parents who inflicted this type of mental cruelty on children would be in deep doo doo with child protective services.

2. Nightmares from the scenario. There are enough REAL scary things in life without making it up. Some children can't watch even a PG rated scary movie without nightmares.

3. Emotional scarring from being lied to and needlessly put into a situation where the kids were afraid for their lives can take many forms and sometimes doesn't show up for years. We tend to accept without question that there is such a thing as Combat Stress Disorder. Putting children in such a stressful experience would produce similar effects.

The "teachers" could have made their point about readiness in case of a disaster with a more educational approach instead of trying to scare the crap out of the kids.

Have you children of your own? If you do you know how things that we as adults can shrug off can seriously impact a childs psyche.; 5/14/07, 2:26 PM
TMink said...: Thanks Dust bunny Queen (great name by the way.)

Yes, kids of my own, I even work with kid. My perspective is probably skewed because so many of the children I work with have been abused.

I know I am a bit cynical, but I do not want my children trusting all adults. But that is off topic.

I think these things that you mentioned could have happened. I do not have enough data to accept that they indeed happened, the kids were 6th graders, so more resilient than small children. And nightmares happen, children who were not abused have them too. It is scarry being a kid.

It would be fair if the school picked up the tab for any counseling needed, but I am still not ready to call for the teachers, much less the administrators being fired. It might just be me, but I file this under really stupid behavior that likely caused some discomfort rather than abuse.

Trey; 5/14/07, 3:08 PM
Cedarford said...: During the "mad cow epidemic" I saw video of farmers and a vet going around killing a herd of calves. Some air gun that shot a bolt of steel into their brains. I watched as the calves saw their fellow young ungulates fall bleeding and kicking in death tremors, but the rest, of course, did nothing as they were bred and socially trained to be too stupid to flee or attack. They were herd animals, but also the natural response for self-preservation was removed. The wild cattle they were descended from would have not gone meekly - they were among the most dangerous animals early man or other fearsome predators encountered - herd deploys to gore close-in predators, the charging bull if his females or offspring was threatened....females and young males then come in to finish off any downed predator or man by goring and stomping, then the herd flees off to the boonies so other nearby predators can't do a coordinated attack.

I thought of that when I heard that the VT students had mostly stayed where they were, clustered as a herd, hid under their desks as Cho the madman just walked up and killed one after the other with a small pistol. No one threw anything at him, no one charged in. Cho died without a single mark on him from self defense.

We have trained our kids to be like herd animals. Call 9/11 then return to your desk and don't "make any trouble" - be a good little sheep or calf...wait for "heroes" to save your life, if they can, but otherwise, be the passive little vessel your teachers so covet and praise until the last moment when a gunman walks up with impunity and begins putting small caliber bullets into your supplicant self!!

Only a few of the smarter ones at VT tried barricading a few of the classrooms. Others, seeing no collective self-defense of such herd-animals was likely, adapted a everyman for himself strategy and jumped out of windows to save themselves.

No learning from that in Tennessee, it seems.

Gary Carson is spot on, not only were the teachers completely irresponsible, failed to announce it as an emergency drill, not an actual emergency - but they reinforced the same VT behaviors that get more people killed when human killers threaten and attack:

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.

The teachers chose to instruct (and I'll bet each and every one of them is absolutely ignorant of self defense strategies) their charges to emulate the same failed strategy that largely left the VT students unresisting and meekly lined up for slaughter.

Michael Moore infamously commented that tough black thugs, if they had been on the 9/11 planes instead of whites, would have given the Islamoids the fight of their lives. Moore was wrong in part because some DID fight back, many were conditioned that cooperation in plane hijackings optimizes survival.....but he did have a valid point. White students will stand around as a white friend is beaten by a pack of black kids, (don't get in trouble, wait for the teacher!), whereas blacks will NOT sit by as a black kid is set on by white or hispanic toughs.

When I visited Europe recently, I went to places where kids are instructed exactly what to do if they found unexploded ordnance, where the young adults who were kids when the Civil War (Yugoslavia) raged learned tactics to use natural cover to minimize their risk of sniper fire, how they were drilled to scatter instead of cluster so in gunman or militia attacks by the other side on their vilage or school it would be harder to kill large numbers of them. How to be alert.

(In earlier days, remote settlers or tribes had self-defense as a priority that every individual was aware of, down to adolescent boys, and all knew they had a role and an obligation to help in the mutual defense in the event of attack by outsiders. Children and women were drilled in tribes or settlements on what to do. We used to do this quite a bit.)

It appears the idiot teachers did everything wrong.

I wouldn't have had the slightest problem if one of the kids had not acted like a sheep but had attacked the "fake gunman" or if a kid whose armed parent was chaperone on the trip had called that parent and the "fake gunman" had been shot dead by that concerned parent. Or since the teachers tried convincing the kids it was "real" and not a drill, if a quick-thinking kid had got on his cell phone, called cops, and the cops, also thinking it was real, had spattered the brains of the teacher playing the "crazed gunman".

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

I think we do need drills in an era of radical Muslim terrorists and Harris & Kleibold wannabes. But not formulated by pacifist PC idiots in public schools clueless on military and self defense instruction- and more interested in further indoctrinating their charges in being "good little PC believers".

Not drills and education formulated by public school teachers unions who consider a Vet or former cop a stange "outlier" to what real teachers do --but by real experts.

Sensible drills, just like for fire or tornado. Always announced as drills.

Depending on the building, and situation.. barricade or flee. If the classroom is lockable, lock it. And pile every desk up as an obstacle. (Imagine how much Cho Seung-hui's wounded and death toll would have been reduced if 30 students had been drilled and trained to have taken 20-30 seconds to grab 30 desks and pile them all up in front of the door. Instead of "calling 9/11 then wait patiently at or under your desk to be shot")

How to avoid being an open target, avoiding windows if gunmen are outside, how to move if being shot at, how to use defilades. When it is appropriate to hide or stay still - when doing so puts you in greater danger.
That, in extremis, it is perfectly OK and praiseworthy to try and kill or injure a human trying to kill you or others - and if you are barricaded, try and make weapons to throw or use in a life-or-death swarm attack to smash or stab the gunman to death if he still manages to get in.

Importantly, students drilled also in how to behave if or when armed police ever show up. They have one mission - stop the threat. They cannot afford to stopped, blocked, and neutralized by some clinging kid weeping about how terrible and awful it was and needing to be hugged and comforted and consoled by an authority figure until they calm down. Students need to be drilled to show both hands at all times near a cop trying to determine if they need to shoot or dismiss the 3 or so kids their assault team encounters as threats. To comply with instructions. To shut up and stay shut up and quiet if ordered to by police. When to open a door if the someone on the other side says they are a cop..
Same with medical people. They really don't give a shit if you have a scratch or were emotionally traumatized watching someone get shot or the gunman beaten to death. They are doing triage. Students should be drilled to stay out of their faces and shut up so they can deal with critical care needs.; 5/14/07, 3:30 PM
Revenant said...: Too late! Everyone is entitled to an education for their kids that doesn't cause any problems what-so-ever. If that doesn't happen, well, someone has to PAY!

Spare us the hyperbole. You don't have to think children are entitled to a problem-free education to think that locking them in a dark room and telling them a murderer is trying to kill them is flat-out wrong.; 5/14/07, 3:41 PM
MadisonMan said...: Where did I say it wasn't wrong to do this?

I will argue that in the grand scheme of things, this little event will mean nothing to the kids involved unless the parents make a huge deal out of it.; 5/14/07, 4:20 PM
TMink said...: Cedarford, excellent points. Here in Nashville (close to Murfreesboro where the school is located) we are hearing comflicting reports as to whether it was a drill or a prank. But a drill that had the points you describe in it would certainly be worth having.

Trey; 5/14/07, 4:54 PM
Synova said...: Making someone believe that a threat is real is a good way to get someone hurt for real.

Anyhow, thought I'd point out that college professor who got fired for a demonstration in his class where he explained fully what he was doing, used a dry erase marker for the "gun", "shot" his students until one student who was in on it, stopped the "slaughter" by shooting him...

Wish I could remember the guy's name or the college. But he got *fired* because (supposedly) college students who knew very well that they were not threatened by the dry erase marker, were emotionally traumatized by the event.

And some idiots thought it was instructive to have a fake gun attack on sixth graders that they *didn't* know wasn't real?

Though perhaps the difference will be that the college prof was showing to fight back, and as cedarford pointed out, the teachers of these kids were teaching them to be passive victims.; 5/14/07, 7:22 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Hoosier Daddy (Have I ever mentioned how often I have the Zombies' Time of the Season trapped in my ear since you came here?)

Heh...I love that song.

: This prank or learning event (laugh) is obviously something that went way wrong and wasn't given more than 2 seconds of thought. I think anyone could agree with that.

Well that is pretty much the problem IMO. I'm sorry but my faith in the abilities of teachers today is somewhat lacking. Again, I am not sure what they were trying to prove beyond simulating a horrifying event for these kids. The apparent fact it was done without consulting or getting approval from the principal or school administration tells me that there is little supervision at this school.

I guess my expectations from educators is to educate my kid in the academic skills needed to succeed in higher ed and not how to lay on the floor to make them an easier target for some deranged killer. Teach them the 3 Rs and save the life and survival skills for the parents.; 5/14/07, 7:46 PM
Sarah said...: When I was in sixth grade, we had annual (announced in advance) earthquake drills, in which random kids would be tagged as "victims" and carried out of the school building on stretchers while the rest of us made our way outside through a dimly lit, fog-filled corridor filled with fake "earthquake damage" debris. Most of the teachers of the kids I knew (including my own teacher) decided to accidentally schedule a visit to a local college production of, IIRC, "The Mikado" on that same day. I was, and still am, eternally grateful.

But anyway, it was an idiotic way to run a drill. Drills are about practicing learned behaviors in a realistic (or not) role-playing situation. They're meant to teach the participants how to remain in control of their emotions and to react in a sensible, not-making-things-worse sort of way. Sometimes they're meant to familiarize the participants with the procedures an administrative body will be going through: evacuation drills on a cruise ship are a great example of that; the annual earthquake drill at my school included sitting out on the playground and eating the stuff in your emergency kit while you pretended your parents were coming to retrieve you early (it was scheduled so that we'd leave at the usual time.)

What's so odd to me is that this kind of thing happens in a supposedly professional environment. I mean, you'd think that a horde of energetic teaching-school grads would at least remember something about grade school psychology, or learning objectives, or, you know, anything at all. On the one hand, "out of the box" thinking is supposed to be encouraged -- but on the other, didn't anyone actually read their state educational standards (which, if nothing else, will kill a million creative brain cells in a single sitting)? That this could happen in such an obsessive, controlling, rules-bound type of organization is an impressive feat on the part of the forces of chaos in society. ^_^; 5/14/07, 9:25 PM
hdhouse said...: ahhhh from the same state that brings you Fred Thompson. I'm also sure that the students were comforted by the fact that guns don't kill people - people kill people. Wonder where the NRA training manual is? Now if only the students were armed they wouldn't have to hide under desks...at least arm that principal, she seems like a pretty bright bulb doesn't she?

What is that old sobriquet? A well regulated militia....something like that...dadadada...right to bear arms...nawwww. doesn't seem to apply here does it.; 5/14/07, 11:56 PM
TMink said...: Oh, hdh your regional prejudice is showing. Things are so different up there near the city then they are here in fly over land eh?

In recent reports the students say that they were warned of an upcoming prank, and many of them laughed and high fived after realizing that they were had. There are no recent statements concerning this being anything other than a prank.

Sure was a stupid prank though, even for us backwoods baccer chewing inbreds.

Trey; 5/15/07, 12:04 AM
TMink said...: P.S. hdh, we in Tennessee look down on the the home state of one of your heroes, Arkansas.

Course that is different ain't it.

Trey; 5/15/07, 12:05 AM
Revenant said...: ahhhh from the same state that brings you Fred Thompson.

I prefer to think of it as "the same state that brings us Al Gore".; 5/15/07, 2:25 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: at least arm that principal, she seems like a pretty bright bulb doesn't she?

Yep. Great example of your vaunted teacher's unions.; 5/15/07, 4:58 AM
TMink said...: Rev, you bastard. Thanks so much for bringing him up. Now I have to go through my day here at work with that shame. He lives, well he owns a house, but a few miles from me. I can usually blot his memory from my consciousness, but not today. Thank you very little.

I can make it past Jed Clampet, Tennessee Tuxedo, Tennessee Vols fans, and the Ford family corruption (not including Jr who strikes me as an honest, intelligent man) by reminding myself of Howard Baker, Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk (Napoleon of the stump) and the recently hdh maligned Fred Thompson.

But you have to bring up the fatal flaw from Tennessee: Al Gore. You and I are no longer blog friends. I fart in your general direction and wave my private parts at your auntie. Al Gore indeed. That was a low blow. Despicable.

Trey; 5/15/07, 8:02 AM
raf said...: Be at ease, Trey. Algore Sr was from TN; Algore Jr is from DC.; 5/15/07, 9:45 AM
Synova said...: What's not to like about Jed Clampet?

Ultimately he was the one with sense, wisdom, and integrity. Past that decision to move to Beverly... but his kinfolk sort of pushed him into that one. :-); 5/15/07, 10:17 AM
TMink said...: Richard, you are SO right! Thanks, I can hold my head high again.

And the clarification regarding Jed Clampett is also well taken. Jethro was the weakest link.

In a final tid bit from the local press here in hillbilly land, the teachers told the students that the armed man was not shooting, he was merely at large. Seems that they knew on some level that this was over the top, but were too taken by the idea to do the smart thing and can it.

I wonder about the boy I saw on CNN. Was he one of the terrified kids under the table, or one of the high fiving kids laughing at how completely the teachers had fooled him. I would love to have someobody squeal on him if he was the latter pretending to be the former.

Where is Jethro now that we need a double knot spy.

Trey; 5/15/07, 12:45 PM
Revenant said...: Richard, you are SO right! Thanks, I can hold my head high again.

Not so fast there, Trey -- you folks elected him four times as Representative and twice as Senator.; 5/15/07, 5:38 PM
TMink said...: Rev, good point. I voted for him on more than one occasion. The shocking truth is that he was a southern Democratic politician with an NRA rating over 90!

He changed.

Trey; 5/15/07, 9:16 PM