PETA Stresses Need to Teach Anti-Bullying and Compassion in the Classroom After High-School Student Brings Rifle to School Grounds
For Immediate Release:
February 6, 2018
Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382
Katy, Texas – Today, after learning that a participant in Taylor High School’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) program was arrested and faces a felony charge after allegedly dragging a screaming pig out of a barn and shooting the animal in the head with a rifle at the school’s agricultural sciences facility last week, TeachKind—PETA’s humane education division—sent a letter to the school urging it to remove all animals from the FFA program immediately. TeachKind notes that FFA programs teach students that intelligent, sensitive animals are objects to be bought, used, and slaughtered.
TeachKind also asked the district superintendent to implement humane education in all schools. The group offered all the area’s high schools and middle schools free “Bullies Are Just Cowards: Report Abuse When You See It!” posters and sent elementary schools copies of its Share the World curriculum kit, which is appropriate for even the youngest students.
“We’re facing a bullying epidemic, and if reports are true, a Taylor High School student took a rifle to school and shot a terrified, screaming animal to death,” says PETA Senior Director of Youth Outreach and Campaigns Marta Holmberg. “TeachKind is urging the school to remove animals from its FFA program and to prevent further acts of violence by teaching kids to have respect for all living beings.”
TeachKind—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—notes that according to leading mental-health professionals and law-enforcement agencies, perpetrators of violent acts against animals are often repeat offenders who pose a serious threat to the community at large. Its staff is available to send materials to schools, suggest lesson plans, and even host classroom presentations for students via Skype—all for free.
The group’s letters are available upon request. For more information, please visit TeachKind.org.
