Wednesday, April 04, 2007

'Hostage Situation' Drill Portrays Killers as Christians

'We need to practice under conditions as real as possible,' says superintendent

From "'Hostage situation' portrays killers as Christians" posted 3/3/07 at WorldNetDaily.com

School officials in Burlington, N.J., who wanted to stage a "hostage situation" drill have portrayed the attackers as Christians, including one who was upset that his daughter was expelled for praying before class.

Supt. Chris Manno praised the exercise to test the response of the school and police, explaining, "You perform as you practice. We need to practice under conditions as real as possible in order to evaluate our procedures and plans so that they're as effective as possible."

Lifesite News reported that the Christian students in the school were offended when the student body was told the alleged gunmen were "members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the 'New Crusaders' who don't believe in separation of church and state."

The Burlington County Times said the mock gunmen pretended to shoot several students in the hallways before taking 10 students hostage in the district's media center.

Organizers of the drill said the "Christian" gunmen had gone to the school "seeking justice because the daughter of one had been expelled for praying before class."

But there's not much of reality to that scenario, according to Bob Pawson, spokesman for the Scriptures in School Project. Instead, it was just an excuse to denigrate Christians, he said. "So what allegedly real condition was imagineered? A grotesque scenario saturated with Christian-bashing prejudice and bigotry; a scenario which could never possibly occur," he said.

It doesn't even meet the logic test, he said. "As all Burlington school officials know full well: It is perfectly legal for any student or staff member to pray in a public school. They know that no student can ever be expelled for praying before class. Hence, the contrived reason for the mock attack is bogus."

County officials said the drill was the first live test of its sort in their area, but Pawson said it was more a test of New Jersey Christians, trying to determine their response "to such a blatant example of anti-Christian animosity."

In a belated statement released on the school's website, officials said there were "concerns" that had been shared regarding the test.

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It's hard to know where to begin to comment on such stupidity...