Teacher Who Bullied Student Over Frog Dissection Receives Disciplinary Action

What better way to celebrate the third annual Save the Frogs Day today than with the news that Mary Ellen Alexander, the Florida middle school teacher who ignored the state’s Choice in Dissection Law and attempted to bully her student into participating in frog dissection, has been held acountable for her lack of professionalism and compassion?

After feeling pressure from public scrutiny, the Collier County School District has issued Alexander a disciplinary warning letter (the letter will remain in her file) and ordered her to undergo sensitivity training. Through the 2012 school year, she will not have a class of her own. Instead, she will shadow a teacher in a different school.

While this is certainly a step in the right direction, the Collier County School District has yet to accept an offer from PETA to pay for computer software that will replace animal dissection.

Not only will the end of animal dissection save the school money, it just may teach students more than biology. Children learn compassion toward animals by the examples set before them. The lessons taught by teachers like Ms. Alexander will stay with them throughout their lives and also affect how they interact with other humans.

In the last thirty years, as many as 200 species of frogs have gone extinct. One third of the species known to exist today are on the verge of extinction. Habitat loss and pesticides are major contributors to declining frog populations. Combine this with the common practice of removing frogs from the wild for dissection and it’s no surprise that we are losing frogs at an alarming rate.

The northern leopard frog is the preferred species for dissection in the U.S. Population counts, especially in the western portion of their range, have gotten so low that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing a petition to list the northern leopard frog as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

Save the Frogs has vocalized their position against dissection with their Race to Stop Dissections Contest. They have set a target of ending frog dissections in all U.S. public schools by 2014.

As a part of Save the Frogs Day, the organization will rally on the steps of the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. Their goal for the day is to raise awareness of the effects of the pesticide Atrazine on frog reproduction. Twenty-four other states and 19 countries will be hosting events throughout the day.

Collier County School District is still debating on whether they will switch to humane alternatives to dissection. If military pilot training can be conducted via video game simulations, the average middle-schooler should be able to navigate a virtual frog to locate and identify organs. Computer software is only one of a variety of alternatives to dissection.

Now that they have seen the wisdom in taking action against Alexander, school officials may be more receptive to exploring other options for dissection. Join the campaign asking the school board to adopt humane dissection alternatives.

Photo Credit: Matt Reinbold