School Stages Gunman Attack on 6th Graders

By Pamela Mortimer

On the last night of a week long field trip to a Tennessee state park, 69 sixth-grade students from Scales Elementary School in Murfreesboro, TN, were subjected to what they were told was a man armed with the gun on the loose. Children were told to lie on the floor or hide underneath desks and stay quiet. Teachers convinced the children that the attack was not a drill. They lied.

11-year old Dalton Brown, one of the sixth-graders involved in the staged attack, appeared on CNN with his mother, Brandy Cole, to give his version of the events that took place during the school trip.

"We were sitting in the dorms and all of a sudden, Asst. Principal Mr. Bartch walks in and tells the other teacher that, ‘We have a problem.’ About five minutes later, they come up and tell us to get downstairs. So we’re downstairs and they tell us to get under the tables, that we have a code red." (A code red is called when someone in the area is armed with a gun, knife, or bomb.)

Dalton and his mother both told how the students crouched under desks in the darkened room, crying, praying, and begging for their lives. One member of the faculty, disguised by wearing a hooded sweatshirt, pulled on the door as if to get inside the room where the students hid.

The attack was planned by the staff of Scales Elementary in order to provide a "learning experience" for the children in case such an attack should ever occur.

Parents are outraged by the behavior of those who are supposed to teach, not terrorize, their children. Although many parent meetings were held to discuss the school trip, no one at the school informed the parents of the plans to hold a drill. The offense was even worse in light of the April 16th Virginia Tech shootings where 33 people, including the gunman, died.

In a weak attempt to defend their behavior, the teachers claimed that they were just telling ghost stories and that such behavior is a tradition—nothing more than a campfire prank. Parents aren’t buying it.

In an interview, Principal Catherine Stevens, who happens to be a graduate of Virginia Tech, said, "The circumstance that occurred involved poor judgment. My hope is that we can learn from this and in the end, it will positive result for growth for all of us."