[TGB!]

[quote:7e8d8]Fire drills are usually conducted during school hours AT the school, not a week long class trip. [/quote:7e8d8]

The children are still under the protection of the school. Because you move the locale doesn't all of a sudden remove the schools oversight/responsibility and their ability to conduct SCHOOL activities. Unless it was a trip where 69 students and a handful of teachers just happened to meet up at the same place, it was a school function.

[quote:7e8d8]Fire drills are usually scheduled mandatory events for the school, and in most cases are announced beforehand. [/quote:7e8d8]

Usually - but not in a majority of cases at least where I went to school. That defeats the purpose of preparedness. You can (pointlessly) argue the semantics of a "fire drill" and a staged demonstration till the cows come home, the situations remain the same: the teachers conducted this EXERCISE as a means of gauging students real world preparedness to a gunman situation. This is relevant BECAUSE of the bullshit that happened at VT. Getting permission from parents to conduct this defeats the purpose of being able to see just how well your students (the students whose lives are in these teachers hands the majority of their young lives) can react under extreme stress situations.

The parents are flipping out (well one is from the story) because its what parents do - forever convinced that they know the best way to EDUCATE their kids.

[quote:7e8d8]What exactly can you do if somebody with an an automatic rifle or shotgun kicks the door open to your classroom and immediately opens fire?[/quote:7e8d8]

Fucking nonsense. Are you saying there is no merit in determining your classes response to an armed gunman? Are you saying the best plan for someone having gun at school is to run for what you think is the safe door and start trampling over classmates - since thats exactly what it seems everyone does in this situation, and you get more injuries that aren't inflicted by the actual gunman.