Nina Denson, the newly appointed principal at Washington Elementary School in San Gabriel, California, was placed on administrative leave after parents complained about her shocking active school shooting drill held on Feb. 7.
According to KTLA5, witnesses claimed that the school official pointed her finger at students as if aiming an imaginary gun and pretended to “shoot people” throughout the disturbing safety demonstration.
“From what I heard, she said to one of the students, ‘Boom. You’re dead,” Jennifer Chavez, the parent of a first grader who attends Washington Elementary School, said.
According to Chavez and several other parents, some children who participated in the lockdown drill were as young as four years old and frightened by Denson’s actions. Their fears were compounded after Denson allegedly announced seven children were dead following the drill.
“Can you imagine the trauma these children potentially could go through just thinking, ‘Oh my God, my friend was killed’ or ‘I was shot and told I died,'” Anna Bustamante, a parent, told KTLA5. “At the young age that these children are, it was very upsetting.”
Denson has been placed on leave as an investigation begins.
An investigation is underway to determine why Denson planned the bizarre demonstration. In a statement sent to parents via email, officials from the San Gabriel Unified School District said the shooting drill was not “in line with District protocols or best practices.”
Jim Symonds, the San Gabriel Unified School District superintendent, revealed that the drill was not authorized.
“This type of drill where a scenario was run is not approved by the district nor part of our district protocol,” he added.
Denson took over principal duties in Fall 2023 at Washington Elementary School. Before stepping into the role, she was a lead principal with the Compton Unified School District, according to her LinkedIn page. A lead teacher with 20 years of experience will be taking over as the interim principal while she’s on leave.
This isn’t the first bizarre school shooting drill to hit the headlines.
In April 2023, a white Orange County, Florida, teacher named Jeffrey Keene was fired from Dr. Phillips High School after he reportedly made students write their obituaries ahead of an active school shooting drill. According to Keene, he wanted to make students think about their lives during the safety drill.
“If they died 24 hours from now, what would they do differently than they did yesterday? And that’s to get them to get rid of all the fluff and show them what’s important in the world. It wasn’t to say, ‘You’re going to die, and let’s stress you out,'” the fired educator said.
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