LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.   Exclusive Truthdig Merchandise: Mr. Fish T-shirts and Signed Prints
February 9, 2010
Log in / Register

 Choose a size
Text Size

Most Read

The Terror-Industrial Complex

Kidnapping Is Not Charity

Sarah Palin's Cheat Sheet

Palin Calls Global Warming Research 'Snake Oil Science'

Soldier Accused of Waterboarding 4-Year-Old Daughter

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
 * NEW! * Kidnapping Is Not Charity
A Victim, After All

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture

Digs
Financial Meltdown 101

Truthdig Bazaar
Fidel Castro: My Life: A Spoken Autobiography

Fidel Castro: My Life: A Spoken Autobiography

by Ignacio Ramonet and Fidel Castro
$26.40

The Best American Essays 2007

The Best American Essays 2007

By David Foster Wallace (Editor), Robert Atwan (Series Editor)
$11.20

more items

 
Ear to the Ground

The Field Trip From Hell

Email this item Email    Print this item Print   
Posted on May 13, 2007

A school in Tennessee recently staged a drill with a fake gunman during a week-long field trip that left students terrified and in tears. The sixth-graders were told a teacher dressed in a hooded sweatshirt was a shooter on the loose and that it was not a drill. The school’s principal said the incident “involved poor judgment.”


AP via CNN:

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.

Read more

More Below the Ad

Advertisement

TAGS:



Related Entries

Get truth delivered to
your inbox every week.

Previous item: Travolta Takes On the BBC

Next item: Flare-Up in the Gaza Strip



Elsewhere: .

Comments

Are you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.

By rowdy, May 14, 2007 at 3:12 pm #

these teachers will not be fired. they are necessary for the teaching of creationism. besides, the children are probably the off spring of a loving brother sister relationship. it is tennessee.

Report this

By Teacher, May 14, 2007 at 3:05 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

I have been a teacher for more than thirty years.  What this type of experience does is simply teach students that adults lie… and that they can lie also.  It also teaches them not to trust adults.  Simply calling it “poor judgement” is not looking at the permanent harm and trauma that may have been caused by this action.

Report this

By particle61, May 14, 2007 at 2:32 pm #

local school principals seem to share characteristics of the homeland security ‘professionals’ at the federal level.

redstateupdate previously reported on a similar incident in Michigan, see story-
Students Learn Lesson in Police State Tactics
http://www.redstateupdate.net/full-page/fullpage-archive-77.html

and another example of scholastic enforcement excessiveness from New York, see story-
School Principal’s Behavior Juvenile, Delinquent
http://www.redstateupdate.net/full-page/fullpage-archive-98.html

redstateupdate has kept tabs on the homeland stupidity beat, watching the watchers, tracking the trackers and reporting on over zealous local authorities since 2005, see the crowd control archive-
http://www.redstateupdate.net/crowd/crowd.html

http://www.redstateupdate.net
funny, frightening, free
and ‘it’s all true’

Report this

By Skruff, May 14, 2007 at 1:54 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Historically, adults have always enjoyed scaring children.  Guess it’s the bully gene? 

Now-a-days, at least since Columbine, some children have decided to turn the tables….

Are you scared yet?

Report this

By RAE, May 14, 2007 at 12:27 pm #

“The school’s principal said the incident “involved poor judgment.””

Ya THINK?

But teachers are human beings first - subject to all the same mental defects as anyone else. The psychological ambiance in the USA these days is TOXIC to HUMAN BEINGS.

Report this

By Verne Arnold, May 14, 2007 at 6:39 am #

This truly goes beyond the pale.

What in the H#@* were these “teachers” thinking?  I cannot begin to imagine.  “Teachers”, I don’t think so!
If they are not fired; it will be a crime.  If their teaching credentials are not revoked; it will be a crime.
This is not a simple lapse in judgement…it’s sadistic and cruel and insane.

Report this

By Tom Doff, May 14, 2007 at 3:16 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Seems to me we can solve this problem the same way we solve all the other problems caused by staffing our educational system with idiots:

Give the teachers and the administrators a raise, that will ‘attract a better quality’ of folks.

(And, sooner or later, the dummies we have now will pass on, so they’ll only be getting the raise for the rest of their lives).

Report this

Add Your Comment

Posts by unregistered readers are moderated. Posts by members
are published immediately. Why wait? Register today!







Number of characters remaining: 4000

Notify you when others comment on this article?


Are you a human?
Retype the word you see here.


Please read and abide by our comment policy.
By submitting this comment, you agree to this site's terms and conditions.

 
 

 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2010 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.