How not to teach a lesson to teenage CJ students

[Ducky]

Only on 12: Employee surprises students in class, ends up tackled

AIKEN COUNTY, S.C.---A learning exercise in a criminal justice class lands one Aiken County school employee in the hospital.
Having a masked, intruder burst into class without warning was where the lesson started, but that's not exactly where it stopped.
The exercise at the Aiken Career Center was meant to teach students how to remember key features of a suspect. The only problem, at least one student didn't know the suspect was fake.
It was supposed to be a lesson in law enforcement, but in an instant things changed Tuesday at the Aiken Career Center. That's when parents say a masked employee, playing the part of an intruder busted into a criminal justice classroom.
One student, a 17-year-old boy heard someone yell for help, and reacted-- tackling the employee.
"I'm sure it was just a scary situation for all the kids. I imagine his parents are upset too," says parent Fred Munns.
Munns has two 17-year-old boys and can't imagine what they would have done. "It's scary. With all the violence, I think it's understandable that he would react in the way that he did," says Munns.
Teachers say the goal was for student's to learn to remember an intruder's characteristics.
"First, you need to cut that off, cause we weren't going to do this on camera. I'll go through it again with you but not on camera," Assistant Superintendent, Dr. Tim Yarborough tells News 12.
Dr. Yarborough refused to talk about the incident on camera, but did say off camera the exercise may be changed in the future.
"I think they should have given them a little heads up, let them know what was going on," says Munns.
The school focuses on a hands on education for young adults. "The goal of the Career and Technology Education Center is to recruit and educate kids that are very directed and know exactly what they want to do and want to reach their goals as quickly as possible," adds Dr. Yarborough.
"It's a good idea that they had, but I think catching them by surprise...It's just too dangerous," says Munns.
A real life lesson, one student learned the hard way.
The assistant superintendent says the employee was checked out at the hospital and will be just fine.
As for the student, News 12 did talk with his parents. They say he was very upset and did talk with the school counselor.
The assistant superintendent also tells News 12 it was not the first time this specific lesson has been used.

[Autumn2009]

We had an instructor do something like this to us last year in the academy. He was teaching and some guy ran in and shot him with a cap gun. We all just sat there. I think we were just happy it shut him up.

[jmur5074]

hm..probably not the best lesson to use with high school kids.

When I was in college our instructor just had some woman walk in and interrupt the class to speak with him. They talked for a few minutes in front of all of us, and then he made us describe her. I think that's a better way of doing that exercise.



Oh, and the kid had to talk to a counselor??? about what?!?!?!

[lewisipso]

This happened in our academy with the suspect holding a firearm with blanks in it. I then knew why we were not allowed to have firearms. It would have been a brief class.

[Jenna]

The simulation was a bad idea, but that kid who tackled the "intruder" sounds like a real sheepdog. If the intruder had been real, the kid might have saved everyone's lives.

[tapout]

The simulation was a bad idea, but that kid who tackled the "intruder" sounds like a real sheepdog. If the intruder had been real, the kid might have saved everyone's lives.

i agree...that kids bad ass

[TXCharlie]

The actor is lucky the kid didn't whomp him upside the head with a chair, or worse.

That's almost as dumb as the restaurant manager who simulated a robbery in front of customers so that he could test his employees - Any of whom might have shot the actor if they'd been carrying concealed without the manager knowing it (they're not likely to tell the manager if they were).

I get it that the lesson might be valuable, but the cost could have been great.