The Henrico County school district’s one-time sale of about 1,000 Apple iBooks for $50 each turned into a potentially dangerous stampede in which potential buyers shoved others to the ground, in an attempt to get an edge on the deal. The embarrassing display of human nature attracted the attention of national media such as ABC and NBC News.
The whole mess kind of begs the question: Why didn’t the district just put the machines up for sale online? Surely, that would have been a safer option than having thousands of people jostling to get a top spot in line.