Student takes grenade to class

[formerarmybrat23]

Student takes grenade to class
TheCanadian Press
Published Wednesday June 13th, 2007
Appeared on page A4
http://www.canadaeast.com/ce2/docroot/article.php?articleID=11047


A Dieppe middle school class got a scare Tuesday afternoon when a student pulled out a hand grenade during show-and-tell.

Lou MacNarin School was evacuated and the RCMP's bomb squad was called to investigate the explosive, which turned out to be harmless.

"Members responded with the bomb truck and they isolated the area and checked it out and confirmed the grenade was disarmed," said RCMP Const. Chantal Farrah.

Police didn't release the age of the male student, but School District 2 spokesman Norval McConnell said he is a middle school student, which means he would be 11 to 13 years old and in grades 6 to 8.

McConnell said students in the class were doing year-end presentations, which often involve props.

"They always bring different things from home, but hand grenades aren't usually included," said McConnell. "It got everyone's attention."

The fire alarm was pulled and the school evacuated.

Farrah said the student told the school the grenade was harmless, but officials didn't want to take any chances.

 

[koko_00]

Without more info this seems like a pretty funny story.

So heres how I see it. The teacher is a women, my guess middle aged at the least. The kid brings it in for a show and tell type of thing and she freaks right out like hes a terrorist. Sprints for the firealarm, tells the kids to pile out like the place was on fire. Meanwhile she must have told the boy to put it down and also run!?!

If you were the teacher wouldnt you just take it away and deal with it and not disturb an entire school and freak out parents and the kids. As well as waste taxpayers money to have hte bomb squad show up on what probably is the millionth fake call they got this year alone?

 

[midget-boyd91]

If you were the teacher wouldnt you just take it away and deal with it and not disturb an entire school and freak out parents and the kids. As well as waste taxpayers money to have hte bomb squad show up on what probably is the millionth fake call they got this year alone?

You're forgetting that it was a potentially explosive device in a building full of young children.

 

[formerarmybrat23]

i agree with midget-boyd. Even if its was harmless, in this day in age you'd get more heat for chancing it. Its unlikely that the teacher would be able to tell it was a dud. I doubt she or he would risk their job (as the parents would have his or her head) on a judgment call they arent quailifed to make.

 

[MG34]

Another prime example of how society has become nothing more than a flock of idiotic sheep. Let's consider the chances of the fact that a live grenade could possibly be in a Canadian household.. very slim at worst case itcould be a WWII or Korea "bring back", th chances that the student would have access to such an item.. once again very slim.
When I was going to school we had ranges in the basements where we would shoot our .22s, and even...gasp.. brought them on the school bus. Now kids cannot even bring a damn peanut butter sandwitch because little Jhonny has a peanut alergy. The liberal social re-engineering process has worked, now the mere mention of the word "gun" is enough to get a student suspended and send the kids scurrying to a dark corner....Pathetic that society has become so weak.
  On another tangent since we are talking about schools here why is it that in almost every school shooting the first comments are that it's a product of vilent video games and such? If that were true the rest of the students would have reacted violently to the shooter as they have been conditioned in said games (where you typically start out with little or no weapons), just throwing that one out there.

 

[koko_00]

Very well put MG34 - I think I may have been a little to far left (or is it Right?) on this one. But as you pointed out we have gone from one extreme to the other, we need the pendulum to come back a bit. Just like training in the military has gone from some say the limits of what we would call abuse (like hitting...) to not being allowed to run in boots and curfew by 2200 at the Mega.

All facets of our society seems to be needing a push back in the other direction to even ourselves out a little.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

I disagree, if the teacher wasn't sure [and really, what % of civilians would know?] than he/she did exactly the right thing in evacuating the school.

Maybe some good old fashioned parent to the teacher information sharing beforehand would have been in order?

I say well done, Prof.

 

[Roy Harding]

I'm with Bruce on this one.  If you aren't SURE of what you're dealing with (and what civvie would be?), treat it as live.

How many recall being told "if you didn't drop it, don't pick it up"?  And THAT lesson is for trained soldiers.

I also agree with Bruce that some more effective liaison between teacher/parents could have avoided this.  IE "Mrs. Smith, Jimmy is bringing a dummy hand grenade to school for show and tell."


Roy

 

[Yrys]

"They always bring different things from home, but hand grenades aren't usually included"

No really  > ?

For the army's brat :

seriouly, folks, I'm wondering if you saw anything like that in the school
you attended near army base ?

 

[scoutfinch]

I grew up with two kids that sustained injuries because they picked up something they should have from the training area in Gagetown.  We lived in Burton and the training area was just across the road.  We had been told not to pick up anything from the training area but I guess the message did not get through to these two young buys (Grade 5 or 6, I can't remember).  I like to think that it was because they weren't army brats so the lessons weren't hammered home the way it was with us.  My point being, we don't know where the kid got it from and whether he had any real knowledge of if it was inert.

In any event, as a parent I would be relieved to know that the school was evacuated.  Let's be honest -- I may take all the precautions in the world about what comes into my house but I can't guarantee what the a**hat down the street orders off of EBay.

 

[Yrys]

In any event, as a parent I would be relieved to know that the school was evacuated.

Even non-parent can appreciated that (as I am). What is the damage that a hand grenade can do ?

 

[Zartan]

A friend of mine actually did that in first grade. Brought it in for show and tell, told the class it was a dud (but authentic), and nothing came of it. How the times have changed!

 

[Sheerin]

I'm sorry, I could just be a silly liberal but how exactly can any rational adult think that the teacher overreacted in this case?  The child could have mistakenly brought in a live grenade.  How the do you expect the child to know that it was inert?  how do you expect the teacher to know it was inert?  My girlfriend is doing her B.Ed next year and i just helped her pick her courses and I can assure you that none of them included weapons identification. 

The teacher did the only rationale thing here.  She assumed it was live and initiated evacuation procedures.  As for the argument that there is a slim chance that the grenade was live, how do you expect anyone to know that?  I remember a news story a couple years ago where a 60 year old man was arrested for keeping a cache of weapons in his backyard, the cache included about 5000 live grenades. 

As for the parent teacher dialog I can assure if the parents had called in and said that little "Johnny Boy" was going to bring in a fake grenade the teacher would have said no. 

 

[medaid]

It was a funny story. However, I also think the teacher reacted in the appropriate manner. If it was any of us, unsure of whether something was potentially harmless or not... well what do we do? I think most of us know the answer to that. We would 'deal' with it in the appropriate manner. In this case, I think the teacher did remarkably well.

 

[Roy Harding]

...

As for the parent teacher dialog I can assure if the parents had called in and said that little "Johnny Boy" was going to bring in a fake grenade the teacher would have said no. 

Up until this last sentence, I was in agreement with you.

Why shouldn't the teacher allow "Johnny" to bring in a dud/inert grenade??  I'll grant that the teacher needs to be REALLY sure that the grenade is, indeed, inert - but after having that assurance, why not?

 

[Roy Harding]

No really  > ?

For the army's brat :

seriouly, folks, I'm wondering if you saw anything like that in the school
you attended near army base ?

Actually, Yrys - I DO recall bringing such things into my kid's classrooms in Petawawa.  I assisted an Ammo Tech in showing kids what could be dangerous, and what not to play with.  The Ammo Tech had a whole board of inert "stuff" which could be readily found on the ranges around Petawawa.  The whole idea was to teach the kids (where have you heard this before?)  -  If you didn't drop it, DON'T pick it up.

So yes, I did see these things in my kids' schools (not in my school growing up - we were too busy learning to hide under our desks if the air raid siren went off).


Roy

 

[scoutfinch]

Actually, Yrys - I DO recall bringing such things into my kid's classrooms in Petawawa.  I assisted an Ammo Tech in showing kids what could be dangerous, and what not to play with.  The Ammo Tech had a whole board of inert "stuff" which could be readily found on the ranges around Petawawa.  The whole idea was to teach the kids (where have you heard this before?)  -  If you didn't drop it, DON'T pick it up.

So yes, I did see these things in my kids' schools (not in my school growing up - we were too busy learning to hide under our desks if the air raid siren went off).


Roy

That is exactly how we learned it in Gagetown.

 

[Roy Harding]

That is exactly how we learned it in Gagetown.

The "Don't pick it up ..." or the "Hide under your desks"?  Or both?  (Careful, Olga - you may be dating yourself).


Roy

 

[medaid]

Ah the good old air raid drills. We used to do that every 2 weeks at my country of origin. I still remember all the bunkers built right into the shcools! Good times!

 

[scoutfinch]

Just the touch/don't touch stuff.  By the time I was in school, we were amazed by the notion of bomb shelters and the like.   It was very quaint and dated.  

Until I moved to Germany and then the notion of what to do for emergency repatriations to Canada really freaked me out!!!  Then I was wishing I could just hide under a desk!