When I was attending Catholic School in the early 60's I'll never forget the time one of the nuns made a kid remain in the classroom during a fire drill. As we were lining up to evacuate the kid must have talked or laughed or joked around. This angered the nun and she furiously told him to go to his seat and sit down. She said something to the effect of, "for your actions you'll perish in the fire !!". As kids we didn't understand the serious implications of what this meant. Suppose it was not a drill ? Suppose the school was really on fire and this child died inside the burning school because of the actions of this nun ? Suppose that someone else died trying to rescue this boy who was left behind ? Imagine how the childs parents would feel knowing their son was deliberately left to burn in a conflagration... Could they ever forgive this "person of God" who so irresponsibly violated fire safety rules. It's sad that as kids we were so intimidated and assumed adults were always right and justified. We should have reported this incident to the fire department. I am sure they would have been pretty pissed knowing a child was deliberately left inside. Not only for the sake of the kid but for their own members who would have to try and locate him.

In those days nuns were generally middle aged, big, tough, strong and very intimidating. They looked more like pro-football players wearing a habit. They were nothing like these young, petite, mousey little nuns that you see around these days.