Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Teachers told sixth–graders on a field trip to a Tennessee state park last week that a gunman was coming and ordered them to turn off the lights and hide under tables. After five minutes, during which someone in a hooded sweatshirt pulled on the locked doors, the teachers told the trembling students that the whole thing was a prank. “I thought I was going to die,” said 11–year–old Shay Naylor, who estimated that about a third of the 69 children were crying in terror. The teachers said “campfire pranks” were a school tradition, and that most of the kids thought the experience was fun. One teacher and an assistant principal were suspended after some parents complained that the prank was horribly ill–conceived, coming just weeks after the mass murder at Virginia Tech.
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