Students could opt out of animal dissections

The Vancouver Province
April 14, 2005
Elaine O'Connor
Education Reporter

A Vancouver School Board committee has approved a draft policy allowing high school students to opt out of animal dissections on ethical and religious grounds.

The committee met Wednesday night and agreed to send the policy to the board for a vote. The move puts the district in a position to become Canada's first major school board to pass a "student-choice policy."

"Everyone got the big picture and that is (that) students should have the right to choose," said Vancouver animal advocate Lesley Fox, who has been lobbying for the policy with the board and through the website www.frogsarecool.com.

Trustee Kevin Millsip said the board would likely pass the policy at a board meeting on Monday.

"I totally support students having access to alternatives," he said. "Even in medical schools they're moving towards software-based programs."

But secondary school teachers had reservations about whether it was necessary and what it would cost to provide digital dissection-simulation alternatives for students who would still be required to do the course work.

"What is being bandied about was software at the cost of close to $900 per school. Then you need the computers on which to play the software," said Bill Bargeman, president of the Vancouver Secondary Teachers Association.

Bargeman, a high school social sciences teachers, said a policy noting students' right to refuse up front would likely convince more students to opt out, and schools would be left scrambling to find and fund edcuational alternatives.

He also argued that dissection choice is not a pressing issue among students or teachers.