Have these teachers lost their minds?

[momof2inca]

<p>This is appalling and indefensible behavior. The teachers should be dismissed immediately. There is no excuse for this kind of poor judgement. None. I teach 6th grade and I cannot imagine how this could be funny, wise or even considered for one second. Like doctors, teachers should “first do no harm.” If this truly happened, I’m embarrassed for my profession today.</p>

[kluge]

<p>

I would guess there are many parents visiting their attorneys today. The school system may not be ashamed but they may be a lot poorer once lawsuits are filed and settled. In my opinion, this went way beyond a “campfire prank.”

Nope. There’s no cash to be made off a case like this. The common misconception (induced by repetition) that the court system is some kind of roulette wheel based on how offended a person can be at some failure of judgment on the part of somebody else is simply wrong. Any parent coming to me with a story like this will get a polite conversation and a walk to the door. (And I won’t roll my eyes and think “Get over it!” until they’re gone.)</p>

[SplashMom]

<p>This school is located in the next county over from us. I was very surprised to hear that adults, especially teachers, were responsible for such a “prank”. I can’t believe the school system or anyone representing them can even use the word “prank” when referring to this action. I’ve included a link to comments in response to the newspaper article written about this incident. I was surprised that at least two parents whose children were in attendance wrote in support of these teachers. Here’s the link:</p>

<p><a href=“http://forums.tennessean.com/viewtopic.php?t=43770[/url]”>http://forums.tennessean.com/viewtopic.php?t=43770&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[roshke]

<p>To answer the OP, in a word, yes. The school website article is appalling and the pathetic “point by point” notes made by the administration are almost, IMO, as egregious as the original incident. Talk about lame and inappropriate excuses:</p>

<br>

<p>Throughout the week, the students had been anticipating a typical "campfire prank… The children knew that this was a typical experience from hearing about previous excursions to the same location from former sixth graders. The lead teacher made comments about this coming “prank” on several occasions that week.</p>

<br>

<p>*Even as an adult, in this situation, I would not assume being told to take cover because of a wild gunman in the park was a prank. So whether or not I knew that a prank was possible it would never occur to me that a teacher would be so lacking in judgment and I would have to assume the situation was real. </p>

<p>And what ridiculous logic that the kids knew that a prank was a traditional experience from former sixth graders or that the lead teacher mentioned there would be a prank. So what? As stated, this is well beyond prank status, especially given the climate in which today’s kids have been raised, from Columbine and other school shootings to 9/11 and Virginia Tech.*</p>

<br>

<p>The lead teacher told the students and other adults that there were people somewhere in the park shooting guns but they were not shooting people; they were driving around and added that the Park Ranger had advised him to tell everyone to take cover as a precaution.</p>

<br>

<p>No rebuttal as to the kids’ version of events, ie hooded man pulling on the door, and the very scary use of the phrase “this is not a drill.”</p>

<br>

<p>The staff used this incident as a teaching opportunity. The children were praised for following the rules of the school system’s “Code Red” procedure.</p>

<br>

<p>* So what? What they did afterward was irrelevant.*</p>

<br>

<p>Most of the students stood up and said, “That was a good one.” Yeah, you got me." High fives were exchanged…</p>

<br>

<p>Who cares? This school district is making excuses for the immature poor judgment of these adults on the basis of the reactions of some young children who don’t know how inappropriate this stunt was? And to say that most of the kids were fine - how outrageous. I don’t care if none of the kids reacted negatively. One kid adversely affected by this would be one too many, IMO.</p>

<br>

<p>…Three children seemed upset by the incident. There was no more mention of the incident from the children following the conversations. No children asked to call their parents or to go home early.</p>

<br>

<p>Again, who cares? This is not about the reactions of the kids, it is about the actions of the adults who are in charge of the emotional and physical well being of their students. Further, reactions don’t have to be immediate to be long lasting and significant. For every kid who reacted in the moment, there were many more who were undoubtedly affected.</p>

[hereshoping]

<p>This is not surprising to me. Teachers are acting more and more like kids. The days of “authority” are over. We are now in the days of “coach” and “facilitator.” I see it every day. In fact they are taught this in education schools. It’s a way to “relate.” They were probably trying to “relate” to the kids–show them they understand their level. Obviously, even the administration doesn’t understand there’s a problem here.</p>

<p>Boundaries between kids and teachers are a thing of the past.</p>

[coronax2]

<p>If, God forbid, this <em>really</em> did happen to one of these students in the future, would they treat it as a drill? Would they run to the door to prank the prankster? </p>

<p>From reading the report from the school, I think this was in such poor judgement, that there must be discipline action taken against the “pranksters”. A drill of this nature, should have been well planned, and the students made fully aware that their lives were not in danger. These adults have no way of knowing the impact of a supposed terror prank will play on these kids emotions in the future.</p>

[kluge]

<p>Well, the posters here on CC aren’t overreacting - at least by comparison to the goobers who posted on the Tennessean website. My favorite post by one of the foaming-at-the-mouth local posters:

Perhaps a similar prank should also speed up their childhood development.</p>

<p>The male teacher should have run in the room with his black mask,
and his pants off. He could threaten the girls with violent rape and
the boys with sodomy.</p>

<p>After all, he wouldn’t actually rape or sodomize. Pranks and stuff…</p>

<p>I think, along with sending your kids off to a government school
to be shot at by fellow Ritalin, Pozac and Accutaine crack-heads,
you should also prepare your public school child to be raped and
molested by someone that has power and authority over them.</p>

<p>These teachers should be stoned in the public square.

Yeah, that’s the ticket - let’s stone the teachers!</p>

<p>It’s a pity some people just didn’t have the wisdom to join the lynch mob, though:

I would like to preface this letter by saying that my daughter was on this field trip and was one of the children who was upset at the time of the prank. However, she is not upset now, nor is she scared, nor is she emotionally damaged in any way by the prank, and as a 6 th grader she saw it for what it was- a campfire prank that she was forewarned would happen. I believe the vast majority of the children saw it in the same way.</p>

<p>I feel that the students would be on the road to forgetting the prank entirely, if not for the parents who have drummed up the media circus in some effort to be heard and vindicated. I have to wonder when I see the same parents on television and in the paper, pushing their kids in front of a camera

Of course, that parent, and others who spoke up to say that while the “prank/drill” was probably a bad idea, it wasn’t a big deal and everyone should maybe just— chill - have been savaged by the wiser heads of those who, lacking the distraction of actually having had kids on the trip, now want to arrest any of the parents of kids who were who aren’t screaming for blood, too. Obviously unfit, right?</p>

<p>Sheesh!</p>

[momof2inca]

<p>

Boundaries between kids and teachers are a thing of the past.

</p>

<p>Hereshoping, I agree that adults are acting less authoritatively with children and teens than in past generrations, but your claim is a vast overstatement. There are certainly clear boundaries in my classroom and in those of my colleagues. Everyone who walks in knows instantly who is in charge. There is no question.</p>

[hereshoping]

<p>Sorry–I’m prone to hyperbole, unfortunately. :)</p>

<p>And there are <em>wonderful</em> teachers out there, of course.</p>

<p>I’m just commenting on the general change I’ve witnessed over the years.</p>

[snoopyiscool]

<p>I always knew those Murfreesboroans weren’t right in the head. You should’ve seen the local news anchors’ faces on the 10 o’clock news. Like giant cheerios.</p>

[momof2inca]

<p>HH, thanks for the clarification. (and for overlooking the typo… I actually do know how to spell generations… )</p>

[Princedog]

<p>Interesting, they are claiming it was a prank now? When I read initial reports, they seemed to be defending it as a drill, which really made no sense to me. Either way this displays remarkably poor judgement. I really don’t understand. Someone must have figured this was off? Perhaps they were convinced otherwise but I really can’t imagine everyone just went along with this as some normal situation. </p>

<p>I don’t agree that it’s “not really a big deal.” While I agree that surely every child isn’t emotionally scarred, that does not mean that some are not seriously disturbed by this incident. When people do things like this, they do not know who in that room is affected by such a thing. A child who has lost a friend or relative to gun violence, or a child who is particularly sensitive, will be affected by such an incident more than a child who does not have those experiences. It isn’t realistic IMO to defend it as a prank which everyone should just get over and had no effect on the children present. This is ridiculous. I would not call for the teachers to be fired necessarily, but I would be livid and I would expect an apology and I would expect the school the devote some time to explaining their poor judgement, and the implications of this foolish act (that it was wrong to say it wasn’t a drill), to the children involved. Seems pretty coincidental that they just happened to plan this “prank”, if that is what they meant it to be, a few weeks after the events of Tech, and as someone who knew kids who were terrorized in their final moments on the earth in those classrooms before dying violently in a hail of gunfire, I don’t find this particularly funny and I don’t blame parents for being mad. Children should not be terrorized by adults in the name of a “prank” or a “drill”, and that is what happened. They knowingly and intentionally led these children to believe their lives were in danger when that was not the case. I do believe that could be disturbing to some and I don’t find desensitizing kids to violent events amusing or appropriate. I really can’t imagine what these people were thinking. I just can’t imagine. </p>

<p>I’m generally a pretty go with the flow person and it would probably take a lot for me to find a reason to pull my child out of a decent school. But I must say, an event like this, yeah that would about do it. I honestly would just really have to question the judgement displayed there, because a surprising lack was displayed. I believe in second chances as long as the circumstances are reasonable, so I’d probably wait to see how they conducted themselves afterwards and whether they handled it satisfactorily, but I would definitely have pretty high expectations for that in order to “forgive”.</p>

[conyat]

<p>Princedog you always raise so many good points.</p>

<p>

Interesting, they are claiming it was a prank now? When I read initial reports, they seemed to be defending it as a drill

</p>

<p>Yep. The guy telling two different stories likely isn’t comfortable with either one of them.</p>

<p>

A child who has lost a friend or relative to gun violence, or a child who is particularly sensitive, will be affected by such an incident more than a child who does not have those experiences.

</p>

<p>Yep. A reasonable person would have taken this into account. As well as the possibility that kids might get hurt trying to slip away to get help. (I think this has happened with some similar prank/drills in the past.) </p>

<p>Looks like the school has seen the light, a little. The website linked early in the thread now has an announcement that the lead teacher and an administrator are on unpaid leave through the end of the school year.</p>

[coronax2]

<p><a href=“http://cityschools.net/schoolsites/se/PDF/NEWS%20RELEASE-Scales%20discipline.pdf[/url]”>http://cityschools.net/schoolsites/se/PDF/NEWS%20RELEASE-Scales%20discipline.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[hereshoping]

<p>Two weeks off without pay? Really tough consequence there for “unprofessional conduct and neglect of duty.” :rolleyes:</p>

[Chedva]

<p>My guess is that the suspension is just the beginning.</p>

[emeraldkity4]

<p>In our district- we seem to give “administrative leave” which is * with pay* while we * investigate*.</p>

<p>I also don’t think that the response of the children is what determines the extent of the inappropriateness of the behavior.
As we know- children may have masked reactions- that don’t surface until later, when time and distance have made it safer to deal with.</p>

<p>Why don’t teachers don’t have a “code of ethics”?, as do other fields in which members have responsibilty and influence over others.
[Perhaps</a> they should.](<a href=“http://www.apa.org/ethics/code2002.html]Perhaps”>Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct)</p>

<p>Its interesting- I often hear arguments comparing hourly teacher pay to say that of medical and legal professionals, but I don’t hear teachers arguing they should take up the other aspects of those careers like disciplining those in their profession and accountability in their interactions with the public
<a href=“http://www.educationpolicy.org/MLcolumn/MLcolumn-073101.htm[/url]”>http://www.educationpolicy.org/MLcolumn/MLcolumn-073101.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[roshke]

<p>It looks like the original letter on the school website (the one I quoted from in Post #24) was taken down entirely and replaced with the notice of the suspension without pay of not only the lead teacher, but the asst principal of the school as well. Was the assistant principal along on the trip, too, or is he being disciplined for his response (including possibly that ridiculous letter?) to all of this?</p>

[OaksMom]

<p>Emeraldkity I’m with you. At my local elementary school (K-8) we have one example after another of “poor judgement”. A first grade teacher explaining about what happened at VA Tech in bloody, gory detail…, a 7th grade teacher who spends the entire class time explainig what the “middle finger” means, 6th,7th and 8th graders who have to wash teachers cars during class time as a way “to show their appreciation”…the school district knows, the school administrators know…but what can you expect froma principal who shows up at the school carnival wearing a tankini in the dunk tank. Helloooo??? HOW~ABOUT SOME~ACCOUNTABILITY!!!</p>

[berurah]

<p>

@roshke

Was the assistant principal along on the trip, too, or is he being disciplined for his response (including possibly that ridiculous letter?) to all of this?

roshke~</p>

<p>I had read that the assistant principal was not only on the trip, but also took part in the “prank.” :eek:</p>

<p>~b.</p>