In an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL in Tennessee some teachers apparently thought it was a good idea to scare the ever-living peedoodle out of a bunch of 6th graders.

This is one of those stories that make you think WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE!!!!!

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (May 14) - 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 weeklong 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.

It’s even worse that the kids were away from home for a week!! They didn’t even have the comfort of their homes and families after this kind of trauma!

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.

This is going WAY too far! A drill is one thing, but acting this out convincingly and traumatizing the children is so far over the line it’s almost unbelievable.

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.”

Poor judgment to say the least. It borders on cruel!

Watch for the attorneys start lining up.

tiara tip: The Median Sib

UPDATE 5.15.2007: Michelle Malkin has an update on consequences for the teachers involved.