School Workers Suspended in Fake Attack
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By Associated Press

May 14, 2007, 10:14 PM CDT

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- Two school employees who staged a fake gun attack
on a group of students during a field trip have been suspended, school
officials said Monday.

During the last night of a weeklong trip to a state park, staff members
convinced 69 sixth-grade students from Scales Elementary School that
there was a gunman on the loose. One official has said the exercise was
intended as a teaching tool.

The students were told to lie on the floor or hide underneath tables and
stay quiet. After the lights went out, some of the children began to
cry. A teacher, disguised in a hooded sweat shirt, pulled on locked
doors.

Teacher Quentin Mastin and assistant principal Don Bartch were suspended
for unprofessional conduct and neglect of duty because of the staged
attack, schools director Marilyn Mathis said Monday.

Calls to the district offices were not answered after hours Monday. A
call to Bartch's home went unanswered Monday night, and a listing for
Mastin could not be found.

The suspension is without pay and lasts until the end of the school year
on June 1, The Daily News Journal of Murfreesboro reported.

"This was not a good experience," said Alisha Graves, whose son went on
the trip. "Those kids were crying, and they were terrified."

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 people dead,
including the gunman.

Bartch, who was present, has said the scenario was intended as a
learning experience and lasted only five minutes.

"We got together and discussed what we would have done in a real
situation," he said.

(This version CORRECTS the teacher's last name to Mastin, instead of
Masters.)
Copyright (c) 2007, The Associated Press

TY for the update bibby...

Suspended...lets hope it gets them terminated..should never have been
done..fear teaches fear not preparedness

I spent a week overnight in murphreesboro once. Does not surprise me
this happened there.

I hope charges are laid for child abuse...what was done to those
children is abuse.

i think there are those who would say tuff love.... me im not one of
them, had that been my daughter, i would show one of those male teachers
(if there were any) what it means to mess with the wrong dad's baby
girl. let them place charges on me for beating the sh1t out of someone-
and that my friends isnt just talk. take away their teaching
certificates, and charge them with neglect.. neglect? yep- neglecting to
realize they were traumatizing little kids mental development, probably
setting them back a little in the social development stages of their
little lives.

should have known better, suspension is what you get for back talking
the principle, or for missing to many days.. not good enough.