Official News page 10

REAL LIFE NEWS: WAR OF THE WORLDS TRAUMA

by Hazed

In a case of history repeating itself, school pupils were left traumatized recently after their school staged a War of the Worlds style alien invasion production, during which a teacher was 'abducted' by aliens.

It happened at Southway Junior School, in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, England, where 370 children saw a 'spaceship' crash near their school. Aliens then grabbed a member of staff as part of the performance. The local police knew about the show and supported it, but parents had not been informed.

The purpose of the event was to "develop youngsters writing skills" and fire their imagination, but some of them failed to realize it was just a show and were left traumatized, convinced they had really seen their teacher dragged off by aliens. They had to be reassured that the teacher was ok, really.

This is reminiscent of the radio broadcast of War of the Worlds in 1938 by Orson Welles which left thousands of Americans terrified that their country really had been invaded by monsters from the red planet.

Obviously some people have more trouble telling the difference between fiction and reality than those staging these events anticipate!

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