Teachers Stage Fake Gun Attack on Kids

AP | May 13, 2007 05:28 PM EST

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — 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...[Open in new window]
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I wonder how they transitioned from this part of the day's lessons to, say, recess or math or anything else. Unbelievable.

We used to hide under our desks 'in the event of nuclear attack' but that was always kind of abstract.

What were these teachers thinking?