Accusation Leveled at Popular Teacher... Involving Puppy and Turtle
You, dear reader, are a newspaper type of person. At half-past-six, as the sun rises over your neighborhood, you go out in your pajama pants, Birkenstocks and a frayed T-shirt to get the paper.
You begin flipping through the the greasy-slippery-dry pages of the newsprint. “Trump Secures Talks with North Korea … Meghan Markle Joins Queen in Public for First Time … Idaho Teacher Accused of Feeding Puppy to Turtle.”
You stop. Wait, what? You check it again; surely this is the “Weekly World News” and Bat-Boy was doing battle with Satan and Elvis in cloud formations, right?
Well, no. Unfortunately, according to KSTU-TV, science teacher Robert Crosland could be in some deep trouble.
“Local authorities in Idaho are reportedly investigating after a middle school teacher made what the school district called a ‘regrettable’ decision by allegedly feeding a live dog to a turtle,” Fox News reported.
“The alleged incident reportedly took place on March 7 at Preston Junior High, roughly 300 miles east of Boise.”
Yeah, I know, things can get hairy outside of Boise. But this is the reaction?
“On March 7, 2018 Preston School District was made aware of a regrettable circumstance involving some of the biological specimens at Preston Jr. High,” the statement read.
“We emphasize that at no time was the safety of students or staff compromised.”
And it got worse.
“Deputies say a science teacher, Robert Crosland, fed a live puppy to one of his reptiles in front of students,” it was reported. That reptile was a member of the order Testudines — also known as turtles.
Local animal activist, Jill Parrish, is the one who filed the police report. “What I have learned in the last four days is disgusting. It is sick. It is sick,” she said.
Parrish says a teacher told her that last week after school, Crosland fed a live puppy, who was reportedly sick, to one of his reptiles. Apparently, it all happened in front of students.
“Allowing children to watch an innocent baby puppy scream because it is being fed to an animal. That is violence. That is not OK,” Parrish said.
Este Hull is a 7th-grade student at Preston Junior High.
“I’ve only heard him feed like mice or birds to his animals…I feel a little bit better that it was a puppy that was going to die, not just a healthy puppy,” Hull said.
It’s a sentiment echoed by parents, Annette Salvesen and Julie Johnson.
“If it was a deformed puppy that was going to die anyway, Cros[land] is very much circle of life,” the said.
Pro tip: as excuses go, that one doesn’t really work. There’s really no good way to explain a dead puppy, especially when it’s been eaten by a turtle.
“He is a cool teacher who really brought science to life,” one student said.
I suppose thats one way to put it. Here’s another way to put it: don’t sacrifice puppies.
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