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<p>I would acknowledge it but he claims to have loved it and these children described being terrified and crying, so I’m not really sure how it’s the same. Honestly, people are different. It complicates things but that is a fundamental element in a situation like this. People can be affected by similar things very differently. And sometimes, it is kind of sad to see, that people will say, well this is a “right” way you should have been affected by it. I’m not sure that’s necessarily fair. People feel the way they feel, sometimes even if they shouldn’t feel that way. It is good to offer encouragement but just because someone else does not seem to be affected in the long term, does not mean necessarily that every other person wasn’t either. I am also not a pyschologist, and I also was not there for either event so I cannot possibly speak to the similarities or differences, except for the fact that the secondhand reactions are very different. Events and reactions are colored by the climate around us, the culture that we have grown accustomed too. Time passes. Things change. And attitudes change too. There is absolutely no reason to say that just because FF was not affected by this experience, that not one of these children will be, not to mention we haven’t heard from the numerous others present at the event FF describes and what their interpretation of it was. One person is not really evidence. </p>
<p>And let’s play devil’s advocate. What if just ONE kid was affected, even just affected some? That’s about as bad IMO. That’s still not acceptable. There was no point to this and that is a problem. To even take the CHANCE that you might hurt someone, physically, emotionally, by something that is so completely and obviously inappropriate and useless, is really very callous. I hope the entire school system will address this and others will follow suit in some sort of addressing of the training of these teachers, because something is inadequate regarding judgement here. </p>
<p>I believe there is a generally accepted interpretation of many problems that stem mentally or emotionally as the idea of (ironically) a gun, bullet, and trigger. People are genetically predisposed to conditions (gun), they are exposed to circumstances that exacerbate that (bullet), and then there is one or a series of a triggers that sends them much farther down the path into destructive behavior. That is why you can have two people experiencing similar things or having similar genetics, and ending up differently, because there is more than one factor that goes into the end outcome, and all the factors have to be present to get to that point. Unfortunately we never know what one event can do to a person. It can be a contributing factor to larger problems down the road. I am not sure learning that people you trusted will play with your emotions to the extent of making you believe you were in one of the worst situations imaginable, is something that has no potential to affect anyone. When one of these kids ends up having problems down the road, you will not be able to say it was this, or it was something else, but to be honest, I think it is probably accurate to say this along with everything else contributed. There is really no way to say how such a thing could affect someone, but I believe it is probably not completely accurate to suggest none of the kids will experience any long term effect.</p>