Middle School Teacher Bullies Student for Refusing to Dissect Frog

A Florida teacher reportedly bullied and taunted thirteen-year-old middle school student, Sarah Wingo, for refusing to dissect a frog during science class. Sarah Wingo and her mother have now taken action against the school, as the teacher violated Florida's Choice-in-Dissection law. The teacher may have also violated the Florida Department of Education's Code of Ethics for bullying and harassing a student.

The teacher's alleged actions are outrageous. According to Sarah Wingo's mother, the North Naples Middle School teacher held a bag of freeze dried frogs above the girl's head and taunted her. The teacher then dropped the frogs on the student's binder, and went back to her desk laughing. At this point, Sarah began to cry. Her mother told NBC news, "To anyone else they are just frogs, but to Sarah that's her nightmare — animal cruelty."

The school principal originally told Sarah Wingo and her mother that no disciplinary action would be taken against the teacher. But after the story gained national media attention, the Florida State Board of Education opened an investigation of the incident. PETA has called for the teacher to be fired, and for her teaching license to be revoked.

I certainly think the teacher should be reprimanded, and possibly fired. But, I hope that the Florida School District also uses this unfortunate incident as an opportunity to re-examine the pedagogy behind dissection in the classroom.

Dissection has become an outdated method of teaching. Schools should teach environmental responsibility to students, but millions of frogs are captured from the wild every year for use in classroom dissections. Amphibian populations are declining due to dissection.

It is irresponsible and unnecessary for schools to contribute to frog population decline. There are many humane dissection alternatives available, including an award-winning virtual frog dissection application for the Apple iPhone and iPad. PETA has offered to purchase a set of virtual dissection applications for the Florida North Naples Middle School, an offer that the school would be wise to accept. Studies have found that students who learned biology through virtual dissection alternatives scored higher on tests than students who learned from traditional dissection.

This Florida school district is now under a national microscope, and they have an opportunity to prove that they believe all students have a right to a safe and compassionate classroom environment. If the North Naples Middle School switched to using exclusively virtual dissection applications, the school could become a model for humane dissection.

Sign our petition to tell the Collier County School Board in Florida to switch to humane dissection alternatives.

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