If someone were to "fake" a gun attack on me, I'd call it assault.

If I were a sixth grade student at Murfreesboro City Schools, their administration would call it "a prank," or what some are calling a "character building exercise."

Background:

Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables.

The mock attack Thursday night was intended as a learning experience and lasted five minutes during the weeklong trip to a state park, said Scales Elementary School Assistant Principal Don Bartch, who led the trip.

"We got together and discussed what we would have done in a real situation," he said.

But parents of the sixth-grade students were outraged.

"The children were in that room in the dark, begging for their lives, because they thought there was someone with a gun after them," said Brandy Cole, whose son went on the trip.

Some parents said they were upset by the staff's poor judgment in light of the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech that left 33 students and professors dead, including the gunman.

Wow. Sounds like a bad idea that came off even worse when it was, um, "executed."

Parental notification would have at least been a good start here, but apparently these sadists would rather apologize than ask permission. Wouldn't want to "spoil the surprise."

UPDATE: Two officials suspended for two weeks without pay:

Teacher Quentin Mastin and assistant principal Don Bartch were suspended for unprofessional conduct and neglect of duty because of the staged attack...