Teachers Terrorize Students

Reason number 441 to homeschool your child: Teachers won’t play pranks that terrorize your 11 year-old child. Scales Elementary School assistant principal Don “Douchebag” Bartch thought it would be hilarious to watch children cower in helpless fear at the idea of being stalked by a hooded murderer with a handgun.

Don Bartch says, “The funniest thing about scaring kids is when they pee their pants.”

At a recent overnight field trip Don and the other teachers on the trip got together and hatched a hilarious plan to re-enact the Virginia Tech school shootings by telling the children that an armed killer was stalking room to room with a gun. They even dressed one of the teachers in a hooded sweatshirt to rattle the door handles and bang on the doors.

It was supposed to be like a campfire ghost story- but instead of ghosts, they used the idea of a madman with a handgun. When it was over and the kids were crying, the teachers tried to say it was done to teach them what to do in case a real killer was on the loose.

From USA Today here:

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) — 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 week-long 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.

Some parents said they were upset by the staff’s poor judgment in light of the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech that left 33 students and professors dead, including the gunman.

During the last night of the trip, staff members convinced the 69 students that there was a gunman on the loose. They were told to lie on the floor or hide underneath tables and stay quiet. A teacher, disguised in a hooded sweat shirt, even pulled on locked door.

After the lights went out, about 20 kids started to cry, 11-year-old Shay Naylor said.

“I was like, ‘Oh My God,’ ” she said. “At first I thought I was going to die. We flipped out.”

Principal Catherine Stephens declined to say whether the staff members involved would face disciplinary action, but said the situation “involved poor judgment.”

Actually, there is a response on the school’s homepage here. The incident is being investigated and I think people are going to be fired over this. It was neither funny nor a learning experience. If a student had pulled this type of prank on school grounds, that student would be expelled from school. And probably facing charges in court. These teachers need to face the same sort of punishment.

Update!  The assistant principal, Don Bartch and another teacher have been disciplined.  The punishment?  A two-week unpaid vacation.

From the schoolboard announcement here:

Director of Schools Marilyn Mathis has suspended lead teacher, Mr. Quentin Mastin, and assistant principal, Don Bartch, for unprofessional conduct and neglect of duty due to actions taken with Scales Elementary School students on May 10, 2007 atFall Creek Falls State Park. The suspension is without pay and will commence on May 14, 2007 and continue through the end of this school year ending June 1, 2007.