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DENVER POST (Colorado) 21 September 03 Teachers' pets, agencies' peeve - EPA, health departments urging schools to ban or limit use of animals in classrooms (Monte Whaley)
Creatures dwell in nearly every corner of Patti Bleil's classroom in Boulder, from Freddie the hognosed snake to Kazool the green water dragon.
Evicting them - as well as the class's horned frogs, domestic rats, crayfish, land snails and red slider turtles - would make learning a lot less interesting, Bleil's students say.
"We observe them, pretty much for scientific purposes," said 10-year-old Kenna Tuggle, a fifth-grader at Community Montessori Elementary School.
"If we didn't have animals like these in our classroom, I don't know where these kids would see anything like them," Bleil said.
But across the country, including in Colorado, health organizations are urging schools to ban many animals from classrooms or limit their use because of environmental and medical concerns.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says animals can cause air quality woes and trigger asthma and allergic reactions in kids.
Furry mammals such as gerbils and mice are the worst culprits, said Erin Collard, EPA asthma coordinator for the Colorado region.
"For the most part, we recommend you don't have those types of pets in the classroom," Collard said.
More than 5 million children under 18 suffer from asthma in the United States, and the numbers are steadily rising, she said.
The Palm Beach County, Fla., health department recommended after a 2001 study of school air quality that schools ban pets, according to Education Week.
Palm Beach officials said some classrooms did poor jobs of cleaning up after pets and maintaining them as well. One school kept emus and prairie dogs in an outside courtyard near an air-conditioning system. The waste from the animals contaminated the school's air supply.
The Humane Society of Missouri refuses to let teachers adopt pets for classrooms after seeing hundreds of classroom pets left without homes at the end of the school year, Education Week said.
Colorado schools generally take good care of their classroom pets while taking precautions that shield allergic students from exposure, local officials say.
As many as 60 percent of the classrooms in the Denver Public Schools have animals of some sort, including hamsters, rabbits, snakes and reptiles, said Joni Rix, DPS environmental specialist.
They have not generated any complaints from parents or students, but some teachers have been asked to spend more time cleaning up after animals and to keep them confined to one area, Rix said.
"Some teachers are definitely better at it than others," she said.
The Denver Dumb Friends League favors using animals as part of a well-constructed curriculum, league spokeswoman Judy Calhoun said.
But each animal must be appropriate for the age and maturity level of the students, while the teacher must be ultimately responsible for their care, she said.
"Kids get a lot out of having pets in the classroom when it's handled correctly," Calhoun said. "But when it's not, it sends a different message."
Still, her group has never fielded a complaint about animal mistreatment in a classroom, she said.
Cats, hamsters and other furry mammals are banned from any of the classrooms at the Kunsberg School at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, said Michelle Freas, coordinator of medical and health services at the school.
That's because many of the students at the school suffer from asthma, and the grooming done by the animals can set off an attack, Freas said.
Otherwise, lizards, fish and frogs are allowed for study. "The whole idea in the classroom is teaching them responsibility about caring for animals," she said.
The fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders in Bleil's Boulder classroom are quick to point out that the animals there are not for play.
"These are not pets," said 10- year-old Marisa Ishikawa. "This is not what these animals are for."
Each student keeps a detailed chart of an animal's behavior, feeding habits and history.
Many of the students and Bleil are responsible for feeding the creatures, and Bleil comes on weekends, over vacations and breaks in the school schedule to care for them.
Some of the animals also go home with students who prove they can handle the responsibility, she said.
"This is a huge commitment," Bleil said, "and my students have to show they are ready and prepared to do so.
"Bottom line is that it all comes down to a respect for life."
Teachers' pets, agencies' peeve

Sorry about the double post previously:

JOURNAL NEWS (White plains, New York) 18 September 03 Mahopac teacher creates zoo to teach biology (David Novich)
Mahopac: Moments after Larry Weisberg placed a cage of hairless guinea pigs on the lab counter yesterday, a crowd of 10th-graders had gathered around, commenting on how ugly and weird they looked.
The pink pigs — which looked like little hippopotamuses with mustaches — came from a research lab and provided the perfect opportunity for Weisberg to teach about genetic mutations and the history of the classroom rodents.
The students learned about the pigs' nervous nature and voracious appetites, and came to the front to hold them. The two are part of Weisberg's exotic animal collection — called the Mahopac Zoo — that he uses every day to bring his class to life.
Sophomore Kevin Gluckowski said he enjoys Weisberg's daily show-and-tell after touching the pigs' sticky skin.
"You have no clue what (the animals) are and then you imagine them living around here and seeing them every day," said Gluckowski, 15. "This makes it more interesting. It's not like having a period of notes."
Weisberg began buying animals in the zoo when he came to the district three years ago. After teaching chemistry for a dozen years in Wappingers Falls, he wanted a change and thought animals would help motivate students to learn about biology.
He started shopping at a pet store in Poughkeepsie, where he bought a range of reptiles, mammals and arachnids. The collection developed into a menagerie of more than 70 creatures, many of which are kept in fish tanks in what had been a school bathroom.
A basilisk lizard from Costa Rica, a blue tegu from Colombia and a Madagascar tomato frog are just a few of the exotic species.
Several times a week, Weisberg comes into the zoo to feed the animals and clean their cages.
"It's very tranquil," he said. "I develop a kind of rapport with them."
Aside from some albino hedgehogs, most of the mammals are loaned to students who care for them at home and earn community-service hours required for graduation.
Tenth-grader Chris Brady is planning to take home a bearded dragon on Friday that he will have to feed crickets. He doesn't expect it to be too hard because he had an iguana until it died about three months ago.
"They're cool-looking," said Brady. "They kind of look like dinosaurs."
The animals are not just designed to make learning fun. They are also a way to teach responsibility. Special education students will be caring for some of the animals in school this year, to help prepare for jobs after they leave.
At the same time, Weisberg is developing a zoology course that he hopes to start next year, as an option for students who can't handle chemistry or physics. Some students take earth science and biology Regents exams, but struggle to pass their third science test required for graduation.
Students would study animal structure and behavior, while performing their own research.
For now, though, Weisberg's biology students are the ones who benefit most from the collection. They look forward to seeing the members of his menagerie because they provide a little break from a stressful day and pique their curiosity. And yesterday, after asking tons of questions, some of them even developed a little sympathy for the hairless guinea pig.
"It was so ugly that it made it cute," said Kalyn Hintze, 15.
Mahopac teacher creates zoo to teach biology