Illinois School Reprimands Teacher for Letting Student Kill Rabbit in Class

July 2011

PETA immediately wrote to Illinois’ Shawnee Junior/Senior High School after being contacted by a distraught parent whose daughter witnessed the school’s agriculture instructor allowing another student to bring a live rabbit to class, bludgeon the rabbit to death, and then skin the rabbit. PETA urged the school to investigate and end the use of all live animals in its classrooms and subsequently filed an open-records request to find out the results of the school’s investigation. When the school refused to release the records as required by law, PETA filed a complaint with the state attorney general, and the school agreed to turn over the documents. The records revealed that—as a result of complaints from PETA and the concerned parent—the school district investigated, officially reprimanded the teacher, and prohibited the teacher from using live animals in future classes.