School board decision could cut into dissection policy

Capital News (Kelowna)
Nov 25, 2005
Jennifer Smith
staff reporter

What are school officials to do when a student objects to his Grade 11 dissection project on the basis of personal belief?

Under the province's learning guidelines, that student should be offered other options, like a virtual CD-ROM guide to the task, allowing the student to learn what they need without breaking skin on a formaldehyde-drenched critter corpse.

Despite the ministry-entrenched directive, the Central Okanagan School District is taking another look at the issue, debating the merits of a personal choice policy spanning objections from religious beliefs to cultural considerations, and yes, concern for the fuzzy, slimy and shriveled creatures who wind up under the student knives.

"I think what's important here is that students and parents are aware of their choice if (things are) offensive to them," said trustee Cheryl Wiebe, before making a motion at Wednesday night's school board meeting to bring the issue to the table for formal debate.

On the dissection topic, trustee Gail Scanlan and Central Okanagan Parent Advisory Council president Sharlene Drohomereski told the board there are problems with the current system as students are not always aware there are other alternatives available.

"I'm hearing from a number of parents where this policy is not being addressed to the students," Drohomereski said.

Chairwoman Moyra Baxter backed their perspective, asking if there would be students who avoided taking a subject, not realizing they could opt out of an objectionable portion of the class.

But according to director of instruction Hugh Gloster, those instances of students truly objecting to dissections on the basis of personal beliefs are few and far between.

This is not the first time the issue was raised before the school board.
Last year, the same student wrote to the board requesting a change in policy, but was denied his request as the learning outcomes already deal with the issue.

This year when Cory Davis wrote his letter, he included a copy of a policy instituted by the Vancouver School Board, asking that the district consider addressing the issue in the same manner.

Davis could not be reached for comment by press time.

His mother, Brenda Davis, a board member for The Responsible Animal Care Society, told the Capital News her son wrote the letter because "he's very, very concerned about animals and he's concerned about the way the animals they're using in dissection are obtained."

She did not know how the Central Okanagan School District gets the animals used in its classrooms, stating she imagines the Canadian system is similar to the one in the United States, providing statistics from the Humane Society of the United States to back her point.

"Frogs, spiny dogfish (sharks), mudpuppies and other salamanders, birds, snakes, turtles, fish and most invertebrates used in dissection are predominately taken from the wild," she said, quoting information obtained from the Humane Society's website.

As for fetal pigs, a popular secondary level dissection project, Davis cites recent studies which show the mammals have intelligence levels that match those of five-year old children and that most are raised in captivity with the fetuses coming from pregnant sows which go to the slaughtering house.