Driving Kids to Distraction at El Camino High: School Officials Use Terror and Grief as Part of Lesson Plan

Officials at El Camino High School in Oceanside, California are under attack for an outrageous program where they falsely told children that several of their classmates had been killed in car accidents over the weekend. After widespread hysteria, the school officials admitted that it was hoax and was simply their effort to educate them through scared straight learning.

This bizarre story began when highway patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to announce the deaths. This moronic scared-straight exercise was designed by school officials.

Oceanside Schools Superintendent Larry Perondi insists that “We did this in earnest. This was not done to be a prankster.” No, most pranksters would show more maturity and sense — and most pranksters are not trained educators who should know better.

This is a case where the children have shown more sense and sensitivity than the teachers. The students have been protesting with signs that read “Death is real. Don’t play with our emotions.”

It is hard to understand how these people secured positions with authority over children, but that is a fact that needs to be examined immediately. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see if anyone sues for intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. It seems that the Oceanside school system may be in need of some scared straight lessons itself.

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