[Feylin]

That would be the proper procedure as defined by Ohio law for disposing of animals used in a classroom lab setting. I'm a science teacher, so we're required to know these things. Of course, I'd never be irresponsible enough to have 20 live vertebrates, let alone mammals, let alone breeding mammals in a classroom with 16 and 17 year olds! *rolls eyes* There's pages of law about the use of vertebrate subjects which means most teachers won't go there.

Anyways, I'm wondering if the teacher a) is not a science teacher, was not aware of what she was getting into or b) her administrators decided to follow the letter of the law in this situation to avoid further trouble.

Technically, I CANNOT let students take classroom lab (and there is a difference between comercial lab and classroom lab) animals home with them. I bring in madagascar hissing cockroaches every spring semester for a lab on their behavior and my principal always reminds me that I either have to "dispose of them or maintain them over the summer".

That is what I'm required to do by law- or loose my teaching license. People have lost their licenses over stuff that seems rediculous- if someone wanted to get technical I could loose my license because I gave the whole roach colony to a student who was very enamored of them by the end of the unit last year. Even though I asked the parents, went to the house to help him get set up, ect I was still acting illegally.

So, yeah. This is a terrible situation and I hope the adults involved have learned their lesson. I can see though that it's not something where you can point directly to the reason for the animal cruelty. I did attempt to call the school (as another teacher) but the secretary fed me an offical line about how they have nothing to say and the proper procedures are being followed.