One of the most phenomenal examples of bad judgment that I've ever seen in a school principal, and that's saying something.
Parents at Bromley East Charter School are still trying to get all of their questions answered after a safety drill last week went too far, they said.
Last Wednesday the Brighton school practiced a lockdown that was supposed to teach students emergency procedures. All classrooms had to lock their doors, but one first-grade room didn't. That's when the principal went in to the classroom and did something that traumatized the students, a parent said.
"He went up to each one of them and went, 'Bam, bam, bam!' And said, 'You're dead,'" said parent Jeanie Styer.
If the school tries to defend the principal's actions by making a Columbine reference, the parents should sue the pants off the place. Columbine doesn't justify telling first-graders that they'll be shot to death if they forget to lock a door (and why isn't that the teacher's responsibility?). Let's put it this way; if a group of first-graders failed to follow the directions for a fire drill, would the principal be justified in holding up a match and pretending to torch the students? Please. There's a not-so-fine line between driving a point home in a manner appropriate to six-year-olds and being hysterically threatening, and this principal is way over it.
Parents should also find out if a student who pointed a finger at another student and said "bam!" would be in violation of this school's "zero tolerance for violence" rules. My guess is there's rampant hypocrisy at work here, in addition to the boneheadedness.
Posted by kswygert at May 17, 2004 03:32 PM