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Teachers Fake Gunman Attack
Anti_Climax writes "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.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to these teachers after the charges brought against students in recent months."
With fear of stating the obvious I'll say this: How could teachers show such bad judgement, maybe practising for this type of situation could be a valuable experience, but with professional help and advice as well as parental consent, otherwise it seems like professional suicide and being in the states certain to cause tons of lawsuits.
Was it really smart to say it was not a drill? It sounds, you know, like crying "wolf"...
Swedish plasma phys. PhD student; MSc EE; knows maths, programming, electronics; finance interest; seeks opportunities
Well, at least they have started their education in not trusting authority, and learning that those in authority will lie to you. This is one of the lessons that most people don't get, until much later in life.
Take care to remember that when you hear a news item that makes you think any of these words:
...then you have almost certainly been given only half the story.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE
Completely! It makes me really angry to read, thinking of what my own daughter would feel in this situation. The only real reason that I can imagine these teachers doing this is that they are a fundamentally sadistic. It is incredibly cruel.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
If there is one thing that the American populace has never failed to shock me on is their lack of common sense. We are blanketed by tons of laws that are nothing but common sense laws. IMHO, even without the Virginia Tech events in such resent memory, this was a bad idea, and common sense should tell you this.
I think that there are ways to tackle issues such as this. One is probably the most obvious, talk about it. I think if you want to do something like this, you have to contact parents to alert them you want to do this, and give them the option to remove their kids from this class (and/or field trip).
These teachers probably cost themselves their jobs as well as any chance to ever work in their field again. And considering their actions, that is probably a good thing.
RonB
It is human nature to take shortcuts in thinking.
Common sense isn't. Anywhere.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Isn't it interesting that schools need parental approval for sex education but no approval for violence education?
One of the larger problems with a drill like this as I see it, is that you rely cant prepare for it. You can tell the kids what to generally do in such a situation, but as no incident will be alike, it is very hard. With a fire drill, it is simple, evacuate the building using designated escape routes, if they for some reason are blocked you can discover that and select another route. Whereas in the event of a gunman in the hallway, if your escape route could very well be shooting at you befor you realize its a hinder. What happens during a drill where th students dos the smart thing and jumps from the 3. floor to get away? Bottom line is; if these drill where to be preformed, they NEED to be drills made out by someone who has some clue of what they are doing, which I severely doubt your general teacher do in this situation.
www.aleo.no
(Note: While I live in UT -- as Red as they come, these days -- I'm a liberal-leaning person with a strong belief in personal responsibility. I proudly own and use several firearms.)
I'm one of those pro-gun folks who does (and did, after VA Tech) suggest that if everyone (or a non-trivial percentage) was packing on campus, that there may have been fewer deaths. I won't mod you down for having a difference of opinion, though. That's just lame -- discourse is a cornerstone of any civilized community.
Anyway, as to what I quoted from your post... I can't speak for anyone else, but if I were to "go postal" (and were still in control of my mind, as it were) I'd actively seek out a place where I *knew* everyone would be disarmed if they were good law-following citizens. That is, post offices, courthouses, any K-12 public school grounds, many churches (being a private property), and gun-free college campuses like the University of Utah and, say, VA Tech.
While many would see the logical conclusion to arming *everyone* as a recipe for anarchy and accidents waiting to happen, those of us on the other side of the issue believe that it is wrong (and downright silly) to place law-abiding people at an inherent disadvantage by default for simply following the law. After all, criminals don't give a flying fig about the laws, so they will always have an advantage. There's a good Dark Helmet quote a about Good vs Evil that addresses this very issue. ;)
Method of processing duck feet
A whole lot of realism right up front isn't always a good thing when you're training for contingencies. I could see the logic if the teachers had gone through an incremental training process with increasing realism and randomness. If their intent was to terrorize young kids while minimizing the learning value of the drill, then, Mission Accomplished!
If you hit someone in the side of the head with a heavy object (book, large stapler, laptop, chair, etc...) there are a few things that can happen. You may succeed in knocking him out if you hit him in the temple. You may succeed in breaking his nose, causing his eyes to tear up and making it nearly impossible to see. You may hit one of his eyes, causing partial blindness and extreme pain. Or you may just cause him to try to cover his head, giving you or someone else a chance to rush him.
Any of those are better that laying there and hoping that you're not next. I agree with the GP post, it doesn't seem like anyone even tried to fight for their life.
I love how you've never even been to the United States, yet you characterize a nation of 300 million people by talking to a few people who were exchange students. There is probably more difference between a feminist living in Berkeley California and a Baptist living in Alabama, then there is between someone living in Poland and someone living in Germany. If stereotyping millions of people through ignorance is your great example of "European common sense", maybe it isn't such a bad thing that Americans have none.
The more you know, the less you understand.
I agree that if everyone had guns, you probably would not see these multi-kill massacres much, however you probably would have many more smaller shootings. If everyone has guns, simple bar fights, road rage, annoying neighbours, and the like can all turn into deadly situations because someone gets stupid and pulls out their gun.