Posted on 05/19/2004 9:25:29 AM PDT by esryle
BRIGHTON, Colo. -- For the first time, the principal at the center of a controversial school safety drill in Brighton is talking about what happened.
The Bromley East Charter School principal said he was checking for three things as he walked the halls last Wednesday during a lockdown safety drill. He wanted to see if the students were out of sight, if the lights were out in the classrooms and if the classroom doors were locked.
When he came to the last room of first graders, Principal Robert Bair found that the teacher had not locked the door.
"I became angry, opened the door, and to send a message to the teacher, I opened the door, stuck my hand in and said, 'Bang, bang, bang, bang. You're dead.' I looked at the teacher sternly and stepped back out into the hallway," Bair said.
Some of the children were rattled and their parents were upset when they found out about what happened.
A special meeting was called Tuesday night with school board members, the superintendent, parents and faculty to address the situation. Bair apologized and said that he was just angry because he takes student safety very seriously.
"I wish I hadn't done that," Bair said. "It was a mistake to have done that. But it was a mistake I made after finding a serious breach in safety."
Bair said that he explained to students afterward that he was only pretending to be a bad guy. He said he also apologized to the students and had not thought that it upset most of the children.
However, some parents were still furious, saying that the incident has traumatized their 6- and 7-year-old children. They said the kids don't understand why a person they trust would pretend to shoot them.
The parents remain divided over whether Bair should keep his job.
"I am concerned about my little boy. I've been sleeping with him and he's just terrified. He's just, 'Mom, lock the doors, lock the doors,'" said Bromley parent Rosita Valdez.
"I hope when tomorrow morning (comes), I walk in and Robert Bair is still our principal because there is no finer principal for this school," said Christine Shock, president of the Parents Teachers Organization.
Superintendent Dennis White told 7NEWS that he has no plans to propose any disciplinary action against Bair but he's still reviewing the case.
Very poor judgement. Children, especially small children, do not have a sense of proportionality. That is to say, even if the probability of being shot is very small, like 1 in 100,000 or something, a small child, in their own mind and in their own way, might put it at 1 in 2 or even 1 in 1 after such an incident.
I like it when the PC elite get eaten by their own monster.
True, but having a bunch of hysterical soccer mommies continuing to blow it out of proportion doesn't help things either.
What a maroon.
And how much was this "trauma" magnified by the HUGE over-reaction by these parents?
A simple, "Well, honey, your principal was reminding your teacher about something. Don't worry about it." probably would have gone a long way to calm the kids' "terror".
Agreed. I have a hard time imagining my five year old daughter being "traumatized" by a finger...
Amen. 100% agree.
Instead most parents probably responded with:
"OhMygawd!!! How could he do that... Are you ok Billy, you must have been absolutely terrified when he pretended to SHOOT you, I can't imagine how scared you must feel, of course you can cuddle with me tonight, and I'll walk around the house with you to make sure all the doors/windows are locked"
And adult teacher being treated like a child by the principal. How despicable.
Pete you are obviously too young to remember practicing crawling under you school desk for shelter from an atomic bomb explosion during the 1950's and 1960's.
I was 7 years old, in the 2nd grade in 1958 the first time I particpated in the drill.
No one worried about "proportionality" back then. Reality is reality.
I guess the parents of these traumatized children should also be concerned about fire drills that are also practiced in schools.
BFD.
A simple, "Well, honey, your principal was reminding your teacher about something. Don't worry about it." probably would have gone a long way to calm the kids' "terror".
-Agreed. The principle did take it a little to far by pretending to shoot the teacher in front of the kids. This poor decision should not cost him his job, though. Had he pretended to shoot some of the children, the parents could have a case against him, and could make an attempt to get him fired.
I'm not so sure about how traumatized the children were. I work around children and it is amazing how violent some of their games are.
This is ridiculous. It is the result of acting like fingers are weapons when kids are playing. They taught them that pointing a finger and saying "bang" is terrible, almost the equivalent of actually shooting. If they had let the kids play cops and robbers, using their own fingers for guns, no one would have been traumatized.
Before we started homeschooling, my oldest child attended Kindergarten at a Church School. One day they had a fire drill. She came home with questions, one of which had to do with her concern that there could be a fire at her school. I sat down with her and explained that fires are very unusual but in order to be safe, the teachers practice taking the students out of the school. We talked about that for a while. Once she understood the context of the fire drill, her fears were relieved.
No one worried about "proportionality" back then. Reality is reality
How many schools were nuked in the US...in reality? (Sorry, I couldn't resist). Seriously, though, not worrying about proportionality is not a good thing in my book. Without it, it is very easy to slip into fear-mongering. I want my children to be aware of the things that can happen in life but also have an understanding of likelihood. A list of possibilities without probabilities is not a very good description of reality.
As far as the guy in the article, I think we can all agree that spontaneous drills resulting from anger are probably not a good idea.
Not a brilliant move, but that lesson is much less harsh than if it really were a nut with a gun. They should be told this was also a lesson for their Teacher, who didn't follow the rules.
He should be fined - mock's are out of season now. (Can't shoot mock's between March and September.) Sheesh!
It's now running 75% "No", but it wouldn't hurt to back the guy up before the DU crowd gets going. It's about midway down the article.
Oh, for Pete's sake. These mothers are just contributing to the stupid zero tolerance stance schools take when kids play cop and robbers with their fingers. Bunch of hysterical ninnies.
Leave the principal alone.
Teaching kids how to cower in fear when the Bad Man comes to their school. That doesn't align with any conservative values that I know about.
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