Student Gets Suspended For Saving Life Of A Chicken
1:35 pm 
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Whitney a 16 year old student at Concordia High School in Kansas, was recently suspended from school, not for skipping class, smoking in the girls’ room or for any other mischievous teenage behavior, but for saving the life of a chicken she raised for a science class.
Whitney was enrolled in an animal science and food protection class and was given a baby chick—whom she named Chicklet—to raise. By the time Whitney was told that she would eventually have to slaughter Chicklet, it was not only too late to drop the class, it was too late to change the fact that Chicklet had gone from project to pet. Whitney knew she could never kill the little chicken, who liked to be held and petted, so she decided to take action.
Whitney devised a plan with the help of her mother and step-father. On slaughter day Whitney went to the classroom early, took Chicklet and ran to the parking lot, where her stepfather was waiting for her in the getaway car. Whitney ditched school for the very first time but Chicklet was safe. Whitney later returned to school to face her punishment, a 2 day suspension.
“If you were told to cut off (a pet’s) head, pull off its fur, clean out all the guts, bag and freeze the meat and take it home for your family to enjoy, what would you do? Please don’t judge me on grounds of bad behavior, but on love and empathy for another living being,” Whitney said.
Whitney originally took the class because she loves animals and wants to study zoology. Well, she is a great example of what loving animals is really about, and hopefully she will follow her dream to work with and help animals.
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I think that student is a hero!
You missed out on some tasty chicken, for shame.
You’re insane. Don’t make me fling my crap at you.
Didn’t she know that this was an eventuality? Surely the teacher must have pointed out on the syllabus that killing and eating the chicken is the culmination of that particular class. What did she think was going to happen?
good girl! thumbs up!
Ok, cute story, but it’s a 2 day suspension. It doesn’t seem as though she failed the class or got any serious punishment. I’m sure it was either told to her at the beginning of the class or put in the syllabus that she would have to kill the animal. I respect her love and compassion, but this story doesn’t have any grave injustices in it.
The most critical part about this blurb is this line: “By the time Whitney was told that she would eventually have to slaughter Chicklet, it was not only too late to drop the class”
That information should have been divulged in the course description, and repeated when the particular project began.
Thanks
I do love everyone celebrating this girl instead of seeing her for just another person who cannot deal with where their food comes from. Unless she is a vegetarian or became one after this project then she deserves the punishment for not being able to comprehend that the chicken she saved is identical to the ones she eats for dinner.
Seriously Nancy? She’s a kid. She bonded with an animal. It had become a pet to her. Do you have pets? Can you acknowledge the difference between pet and livestock you ridiculous prat?
How about you try and empathize with the young lady that showed the strength to stand by her convictions instead of passing judgement?
Why is it our schools are STILL teaching kids to kill animals? What benefit is this to the average everyday person? I applaud her and rate the school an F for killing animals. We wonder why kids take guns into schools. Maybe they learned it from their classes.
Just because a piece of “journalism” approaches a subject one should see as altruistic does not make it valid or well done. Let me just begin with i get it the girl didn’t kill her pet and I’m good with that.
1. She did ditch class, nullifying “facts” presented in the first paragraph. unless of course I am ment too not gleen information from paragraph 3.
2. Im am nearly 100 percent certain on the written notification of suspension it does not say ” suspended for saving the life of a chicken she raised for a science class ”
There is nothing unfair about a two day suspention for skipping class. Had she been expelled I would be outraged.
There is more dubious ” reporting ” in this article though.
Though 14 seconds of tabbed research i was able to find out that Whitney was told about having to slaughter the chicks before ever even having one but she blew that off as whimsey because in her extensive knowledge of school funding she thought noone would gouge the taxpayer for her idiodic teachers kill project.
Now lets talk summary: This story should have been written about how disgusting Nate Hamilton her teacher is(trust me this story is a billion times more offensive then what you got here) not about a psudo hero 16 year old who disregarded open information about how she would HAVE to kill this animal before she even got it.
Im not providing a link to the story because its your own goddamn fault you dont vet your news do it yourself.
If more people had Whitney’s strength, killing of animals in the classroom would no longer be happening.
Thank you Whitney, and all those students who have made the decision to stand up and be counted!
Nowadays people eat meat for pleasure, not survival as vegetarians can survive very well without meat. It is time to evolve past the barbaric custom of slaughtering animals for meat. No school should teach or require children to kill their animals. For the same reason I find 4H Club reprehensible. I am a born vegetarian and now a vegan and I am thriving very well and healthily without meat and dairy products. Kudos to Whitney for saving the chicken. I hope she becomes a life-long vegetarian from now on.
I left vet school for the same reasons. Classes in laboratory animal care-taking required the destruction of the lab animals after each class; more animals were obtained for subsequent students of each semesters class.
It was found that the animal sciences employee that slaughtered the lab animals after each course ended was abusing the animals prior to slaughtering them. This was discovered by a student, the whole student body (of agriculture sciences) was informed, and a mass complaint resulted in the animal sciences employee being fired. Although abuse of animals in such a educational setting is likely a rare occurrence, it is the wide-spread attitude of academic indifference to animal suffering and the view that animals are mere ‘items on a budget list’ that surely needs to be addressed.
The issue is financial.
Farming (rearing) of animals for laboratory and educational use is big business in many industrialized nations. Teaching institutions routinely apply for grants and other financial packages to supplement their budgets. Unfortunately for universities that teach animal sciences courses, these financial packages often include budgets for animal procurement -funds which must be spent for that purpose in order to qualify for the financial package in the application process, and in order to apply for future grants.
Some animals used in veterinary schools (for dissection labs, where the animal has already been euthanized) are procured from animal shelters that sell unwanted pets to be used for research or as dissection animals in educational settings. This is big business. The day I looked down at my lab bench and saw a cat that had been euthanized -and realized that it was in the prime of health when it died, was the day I decided to leave school. My suspicions that this animal had been procured from an animal shelter of stray and unwanted pets was later confirmed by my research.
In today’s high-tech world, many computer models exist that can totally replace live animals in classroom settings. Use of live animals is really unnecessary for students to learn about the circulatory system, etc. There are even mechanical models available for use of teaching tools (think: mechanical dummies used to teach CPR). Purchase of these teaching tools requires educational institutions to spend more wisely and think to the future, but initial costs can be recouped making future expenditures for replacement animals unnecessary.
Just so you readers know: I ended up working in animal welfare (30 years), and only worked in settings where no animal waiting to be re-homed was ever euthanized for lack of a placement. One winter I placed 106 cats in new homes, and follow-up revealed all placements were successful.
I have also worked for animal welfare rights in several countries, the most difficult one being the USA. Difficult because all animals (even pets) in the United States come under the jurisdiction of the Dept of Agriculture, and are defined not as sentient beings in their own right, but as ‘property’ of a specific individual (the ‘owner’). Another attitude well past its sell-by date.
Well, if she really does want to be a vet, she’d better get used to animals dying, by her hand or others, or else she won’t get very far in her career. I hope she learned something from this and doesn’t waste her parent’s hard earned money on a trade she won’t be able to handle.
congrats, whitney. hopefully your teacher has more sense in the future to tell you beforehand if you’re going to kill the animal