“First-graders’ apparent plot to kill classmate with poisoned lunch foiled by teacher” reads the headline in the Washington Post, in an article by from
Officials at an elementary school in Anchorage said they uncovered a plot among three first-grade students to kill a classmate using poison, according to news reports.
The conspiracy was foiled when another student overheard the alleged plotters discussing their plan and alerted a teacher, Anchorage School District spokeswoman Heidi Embley told CBS affiliate KTVA.
The plot would never have worked regardless. The silica gel the kids planned to use was not toxic. They had been fooled by a package warning that said “do not consume.”
The article states that officials aren’t sure whether the kids “knew what they were doing.”
I’d say the answer to that will be yes and no. They knew they planned to kill someone. The finality and horror of that death are likely beyond their understanding. In first grade, students sometimes still believe in magic. They may believe that everything can be fixed somehow. They certainly don’t have the long-term view that would allow them to appreciate the future consequences of their choice.
My question was immediate when I saw this article: How did they get the idea? What makes a group of kids get to the point of discussing a plan like this? Of plotting a plan like this?
Eduhonesty: We live in the Too Much Information Age. Especially with younger children, I’d like to plead for less access to that information. Even Law and Order should be off the six-year-old menu. Let’s plug in that Disney DVD or stream Ernie and Bert.
As signals stream in from all over the globe, our kids need us to protect them from the surfeit of information that now enters our homes in dribs and drabs every second of the day.