What we have here…

Is an amazing lack of situational awareness. Along with some amazing stupidity.

The swarm of teenagers milling around the Village at Sandhill on Saturday evening was “alarming,” but Monica Elkins-Johnson continued into Blue Fin Seafood Restaurant and Bar to meet a friend for dinner.

However, dinner was interrupted when the area outside the businesses erupted into chaos.

“I saw a huge amount of students just running,” said Elkins-Johnson, who is a member of the Richland 2school board. “They were running from the back of the movie theater to Blue Fin. They were running across the street, jumping over cars, running into cars.”

Minutes later, teenagers began fighting in front of Elkins-Johnson, who was sitting on the restaurant’s patio. That’s when the educator of more than 20 years jumped into action to try to break up the fight. A server at the restaurant jumped over the patio railing to help, Elkins-Johnson said.

Just briefly, let’s run down the list:

1. “Swarm” of teenagers
2. Ignored a feeling of alarm
3. Saw people running, apparently sat waiting to see what was happening
4. Jumped into the middle of a riot

Numbers 1 and 2 should have led to her saying to herself “Self, I think we’ll be eating elsewhere tonight.” Number 3 should have led to her dropping more than enough cash on the table to cover the food and a tip and de-assing the AO immediately by the nearest exit that took her in the opposite direction. Number 4 is just stupid–you get hurt or killed pulling dumb stunts like that.

But the money quote is this, from Elkins-Johnson herself.

“You don’t run to fights; you run away from fights,” she recalled telling them. “A bullet does not have a name on it.”

She really should take her own advice.