Children Traumatized By "War of the Worlds" Abduction of Teacher

370 children at Southway Junior School were surprised when a spaceship landed near their school. They were terrified when aliens invaded the classrooms and started to abduct teachers; and their parents are furious that school officials decided to put on this production to "develop youngsters' writing skills" without notifying them first. The school did have the foresight to inform the local police however. Thinking it was a great idea, the cops provided sirens and flashing blue lights to signify the landing of the spaceship. A parent who wished to remain anonymous said, "God only knows what the school was playing at. I mean, to shock children into thinking that the aliens have landed and have abducted a teacher is just a little too much for seven-year-olds. My daughter was deeply upset by it all and came home looking shell shocked. She wasn't sure what had happened and really wanted to know that everything was going to be alright."

Comments

Cry me a river

[alexborges]

The children were in trauma?

Give me a break, parents, the world is much, much worse than any kind of alien invasion. Why insist on having kids live in a small cristal bubble?

Re:Cry me a river

[Anonymous Coward]

Give me a break, parents, the world is much, much worse than any kind of alien invasion.

Pfffft. When I was a youngster, I was abducted by aliens all the time while walking barefoot, in the snow, up hill both ways, to and from school.

Re:Cry me a river

[Scragglykat]

Obligatory "And boy was my butt sore"

Re:Cry me a river

[Fantastic Lad]

Having ALL the adult authority figures in your 7 year-old life convince you that the world is ending. . ? If you honestly think that wouldn't mess you up, then you're kidding yourself. You're not Captain Kirk. If they pulled it off, you'd be shell-shocked like anybody else.

Of course. . , if the teaching and police staff did a half-assed job and made themselves look like idiots while wrecking their air of authority, then the smart kids would be disturbed for entirely different reasons. "Oh my god. The adults in our lives are all complete morons. We're doomed."

-FL

Re:Cry me a river

[Troy]

I'm sorry, but this is a little bit bigger than "bad ol Mr. Teacher yelled at my little snowflake for misbehaving, and scared him for life."

These kids were 7, and made to believe that a hostile alien force was camped outside of the school and kidnapping teachers. As far as believability vs age, this would be about equivalent to fooling the students at a junior high school that terrorists had taken over the school and taken teachers hostage.

Both scenarios are wildly inappropriate.

Re:Cry me a river

[bill_mcgonigle]

OK, so really how many kids were just laughing?

*My* kids are learning critical thinking skills. We've talked about the likelihood of ET life, the energy required to travel interstellar distances and the absurdity of alien invasion stories. It's right up there with werewolves.

No doubt some kids were scared, but it's the parents who should have been rearing their children properly who are to blame, and are complaining. Parenting FAIL.

Apparently the school staff is also tone-deaf to just how much these kids need to learn and are not teaching them well either.

Ideally this would have gone off as an awesome party.

Re:Cry me a river

[DigiShaman]

Why insist on having kids live in a small cristal bubble?

So they can grow up spineless and weak. It makes it easier for the elite class of politicians to subjugate them as they are always vying for power and control. Why else are such nanny-state laws passed? It's to strip away individual freedoms and liberty. Statism at its finest. How insidious!

Re:Cry me a river

[H0p313ss]

...then the smart kids would be disturbed for entirely different reasons. "Oh my god. The adults in our lives are all complete morons. We're doomed."

Yep. I remember when I first realized that the adults were all complete morons!

Happy times...

And then I grew up and became one of the morons... *sigh* ... parenting teenagers is a humbling experience.

Re:Cry me a river

[Abreu]

Yeah, they should have told them instead that the Rapture had come and that none of them were Chosen! ~~~~

Re:Cry me a river

[Fantastic Lad]

*My* kids are learning critical thinking skills. We've talked about the likelihood of ET life, the energy required to travel interstellar distances and the absurdity of alien invasion stories. It's right up there with werewolves.

You do realize that through your actions, your kids are now pretty much guaranteed to join a christian cult and worship elves while drinking colloidal silver to cure their ills, right?

-FL

Re:Cry me a river

[beadfulthings]

Yours is the only post in this thread so far that makes any sense. Kids have to absorb enough shock and trauma from the real world that they shouldn't have to absorb it in fake format from people they need to trust. My other observation is that every teacher and administrator who participated needs to be sent back to school for a refresher on child development. This stunt would have been fun and perhaps effective in a junior high. First through third graders are still trying to ground themselves in the real world and haven't quite distinguished between the real and the magical or imaginary. It's why so many of them still believe in Santa Claus at that age. You must either have a child of your own, or you've retained your empathy.

Re:Cry me a river

[bill_mcgonigle]

You do realize that through your actions, your kids are now pretty much guaranteed to join a christian cult and worship elves while drinking colloidal silver to cure their ills, right?

A blue kid *and* I get to visit Clearwater? Kick-ass!

Re:Cry me a river

[alexborges]

"The adults in our lives are all complete morons. "

I beg your pardon, but im convinced this is the absolute truth regardless of doing a "War of the worlds" drill at the school.

Children should be faced with the truth, nothing more, nothing less.

Re:Cry me a river

[K. S. Kyosuke]

"the energy required to travel interstellar distances and the absurdity of alien invasion stories"

That's what Scully said in the X-Files Pilot.

Should've Gone with Clowns

[jbezorg]

That would have really messed them up ( heck, I think I'd be messed up after that ).

Re:Should've Gone with Clowns

[sesshomaru]

o/~ its time to take a ride on a nightmare merry go round / you'll be dead on arrival from the likes of the killer klowns / from outer space... o/~

Why do one when you can do both? Hey, that film is a classic!

As stupid as South Park's adults

[seandiggity]

Those adults were as stupid as the ones from South Park...maybe a good idea for an episode? Especially since the recent ones have been really lacking...

Re:As stupid as South Park's adults

[xmundt]

Those adults were as stupid as the ones from South Park...maybe a good idea for an episode? Especially since the recent ones have been really lacking...

I am old....
I remember when South Park was a satire...not a documentary.

Not like when I was a kid...

[puroresu]

If aliens had abducted our teachers we'd have jumped for joy.

Stupid Pills

[unitron]

Between stuff like this and the English police arresting a photographer for being too tall (it's on theregister.co.uk), I'm starting to think that stupid pills really do exist and are in mass distribution.

Re:Stupid Pills

[Narnie]

...and it must be in the water supply.

Note to self: Must find way to make tin-hat filter the water supply.
Peace On Earth
Purity Of Essence

Oh get over it

[Gogogoch]

Dear me, how pathetic. It's not the kids who are over-reacting, but the parents.