If a kid makes a finger gun while playing cops and robbers at school, they get suspended.
So, what happens when a Californian elementary school principal uses finger guns to play "I'm a mass murderer" at school during an active shooter drill?
It turns out, they also get suspended, or "placed on administrative leave," as they call it when you're the principal and not a child.
At least that's what happened to George Washington School's principal Nina Denson, after she decided to be the active shooter during an active shooter drill.
"She proceeded to walk around campus and pretended to shoot people she saw using finger movements and banging on windows," said Jennifer Chavez, a parent. "From what I heard, she said to one of the students, ‘Boom. You're dead.'"
Some of the students Denson traumatized were as young as 4-years old.
"Oh he was really upset," Chavez said of her son, who is in first grade. "The one shocking, surprising thing he said as a 6-year-old was, ‘I'm just really glad none of my friends died.'"
Though according to reports, after the drill, Denson announced over the intercom that she had killed 7 students with her imaginary finger bullets.
"Can you imagine the trauma these children potentially could go through just thinking, ‘Oh my G--, my friend was killed' or ‘I was shot and told I died,'" said Anna Bustamante, a parent. "At the young age that these children are, it was very upsetting."
Jim Symonds, superintendent of the San Gabriel Unified School District, said,
This type of drill where a scenario was run is not approved by the district nor part of our district protocol.
An email sent to parents from the district reaffirmed that statement:
The conduct of the drill does not appear to have been in line with District protocols or best practices.
An investigation is underway, and the district has appointed an interim principal until the investigation is complete.
I have to imagine, this whole fiasco would have been over before it started if the schools would stop suspending kids playing cops and robbers out on the playground.
All George Washington School needed was a good guy with a finger gun.
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