Teacher Sues School Over 'Gunman' Who 'Killed' Her

Linda McLean suffered PTSD after the surprise 'active shooter' drill
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 22, 2015 2:22 AM CDT
Updated Apr 22, 2015 7:00 AM CDT
Teacher: 'Active Shooter' Drill Gave Me PTSD
Gunmen prowl the hallways during a mock shooter drill.   (AP Photo/The Gleaner, Mike Lawrence)

Teacher Linda McLean says she hasn't been able to work since the terrifying Friday two years ago when a man wearing goggles burst into her classroom, pointed a pistol in her face, pulled the trigger, and told her, "You're dead." But she wasn't shot: The gunman turned out to be the school district's safety officer, conducting a surprise "active shooter" drill on a day when students were at home, the Oregonian reports. McLean is suing the school district in Halfway, Ore., the principal, and several other parties over the drill, seeking lost pay, medical costs, and punitive damages, reports NBC News. According to her lawsuit, she tried to go back to the school the Monday after the drill but became "extremely emotionally and physically ill" and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The drill at Pine Eagle School District No. 61 came just a few months after the Sandy Hook massacre, and "panic ensued," according to McLean's lawsuit. She says that when the safety officer and a school board member went room to room firing blanks, one teacher wet herself and another was injured in a scuffle, the Oregonian reports. The 56-year-old's lawsuit states that being "assaulted and terrorized by a man armed with a gun lies well outside the scope" of her employment, Courthouse News reports. According to an Oregonian story from 2013, the drill led school officials to conclude that "not many" of the school's 15 teachers would have survived a real attack. (A Missouri family staged a kidnapping to terrify a 6-year-old boy who was "too nice" to strangers.)

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