Fire their asses

Sonnabend · 06-13-2008, 05:37 AM

Give me one good reason why they should not be fired

Hoax drink-drive death horror for US students

US police and teachers have faced a furious backlash after hoax announcements of the deaths of fellow students as a road safety stunt.The authorities told a group of high school students in California that two dozen of their classmates had been killed in road smashes.

But they had to admit it was just a hoax when the teenagers at El Camino High School became hysterical with grief. The fake announcement was part of a road safety campaign meant to scare the students off drink-driving.To make it seem real, highway patrol officers visited the school on a Monday morning to deliver the grim news explaining why 26 students were missing from class.

The Associated Press reports some students wept, some felt physically ill and others were completely overcome. Sensing the hoax had gone too far, some teachers decided to break character and tell the grief-stricken students it was not true. Word quickly spread throughout the school and shock and pain was replaced by fury and disbelief.

One student, named as Michelle, who had been told her friend David had been killed, was quoted as saying: "They got the shock they wanted". She had been told David had died instantly after a drink-driver crashed into his car.Another student she felt betrayed by people she is supposed to be able to trust.

When the hoax was revealed, students began screaming in anger at the teaching staff. At a later assembly, they held signs saying: "Death is real. Don't play with our emotions", the AP reported.Those who were slow to hear the news of the hoax then had the added shock of seeing their "dead" friends turn up for class.
School officials are unrepentant. "They were traumatised, but we wanted them to be traumatised," a guidance counsellor was quoted as saying.

The area's schools superintendent said there had only been a handful of complaints and that it appeared as though the message had got through.

Un- fucking-believable.

**AmPat** · 06-13-2008, 06:19 AM

This is one of those ideas that occurs and gets implimented when no mature voice of reason is in the room to turn it off. I believe there are some contrite people doing some heavy damage control right now.

They could have just scheduled a field trip to the morgue for an autopsy. Seriously; there are already better run "scared straight" programs out their that could have been used.

Sonnabend · 06-13-2008, 07:07 AM

A furious Aussie blogger noted that if anyone wants to defend this lunacy, he has a wonderful idea. Find a relative of the headmaster, have a guy come up to his home in the dead of night and tell them their son / daughter is dead.

Then tell them it was a hoax.

Sauce for the goose.

noonwitch · 06-13-2008, 09:44 AM

Geez, all they did to us was make us watch a movie that the cops made of drunk-driving crash scenes, injured and dead passengers included.

**dixierat** · 06-13-2008, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by noonwitch

Geez, all they did to us was make us watch a movie that the cops made of drunk-driving crash scenes, injured and dead passengers included.

Signal 30, I presume? I had to watch that one 2 or 3 times. Very gory.

**megimoo** · 06-13-2008, 10:25 AM

Originally Posted by AmPat

This is one of those ideas that occurs and gets implimented when no mature voice of reason is in the room to turn it off. I believe there are some contrite people doing some heavy damage control right now.

They could have just scheduled a field trip to the morgue for an autopsy. Seriously; there are already better run "scared straight" programs out their that could have been used.

This is what they do in Drivers Education classes at high school around here.They show pictures of young kids mangled in car crashes in hopes it will scare the kids into driving slower !

**Gingersnap** · 06-13-2008, 11:02 AM

This was retarded and they should be punished. That said, a number of my fellow students were either killed or badly injured in car accidents during my senior year or in the summer after graduation. While we were sad, I don't remember anyone falling apart emotionally over it.

Vepr · 06-13-2008, 11:43 AM

If this is news then we truly are doomed. We are becoming a bunch of skirt wearing poodle walkers. They should have classes in every high school that do this sort of thing called "Life Sucks 101".

BSR · 06-13-2008, 11:45 AM

Stupid idea? yeah

Fireable offense? nah...

It's not like they called the family of these kids and told them their loved one is dead.

noonwitch · 06-13-2008, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by Vepr

If this is news then we truly are doomed. We are becoming a bunch of skirt wearing poodle walkers. They should have classes in every high school that do this sort of thing called "Life Sucks 101".

I agree about the generally wussiness of kids today. Bike helmets, safe playgrounds (which can't be as fun as the metal stuff I played on as a kid), pitching machines, elbow and knee pads for roller blading, and a lack of trans fat in the diet is making our children totally wimpy. When they do finally get their first major injury, it is that much more traumatic for them, because they never got all the little bumps and scrapes that most kids get growing up.