Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm an earth science teacher in central VA. While I don't cover reptiles in my curriculum, I would still like to be able to have reptiles in the classroom to get the students comfortable with them. (Exposure is education, in my experience.)

Despite the incredible amount of material I've given him, the experience I have, etc., my principal will only allow me to bring in some small lizards. That's IT. The county rules do say that the Principal is the final say, so I really have no recourse.

Any other teachers out there that have had this experience? What did you do?

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Bonnie Keller
VA Reptile Rescue
www.vareptilerescue.org

I say go with what the principal wants. Then get lizards such as Ophisaurus. Even blue tongue skinks are useful when it comes to "loosening up" administrators.

That's worked for me and might be worth a try. at least you'll enjoy making the principal's eyes get as big as saucers when you let her know that it's a lizard!

Good Luck

Carl Franklin
Carl's Creepy Crawlies

Sorry, I don't have any breakthrough ideas on this one.

I've been fortunate enough to work at a school where we've had reptile-tolerant principals. They understood that exposure to living animals was a powerful teaching tool. Just so long as I was responsible and discreet with the animals and kept them in my classroom everything was cool.

Since your principal has given you a foot in the door with just lizards, you might try a small colony of "cute" lizards like leopard geckos or crested geckos. As word gets around among staff, students, and community about how harmless and gentle these reptiles are perhaps your principal will lighten up. As the colony expands, perhaps other teachers will want these cuties in their class (well, maybe not)

Our district switches principals around every few years. Perhaps you'll just have to wait for a change in leadership.

Good luck!

Not only can you keep several morphs and have the kids have hands-on breeding expereince (our first year doing this and the kids adore it.) And it will loosen up the principal when he sees the great reactions you are getting... Then a bearded dragon, and so on and so forth. My one warning: The only accident I've had in two years has been with a large male during breeding season. He was feeling feisty and when one of the kids bugged him, really chomped down (as much as a leo can anyway). I don't keep him in the classroom during breeding or where he can sense the females now.

Bonnie,

You might try to find a student in school who has a snake for a pet
and talk to the students parents to see if a parent can talk the principal
into allowing snakes. I know that my daughter is fairly famous in her school for
our collection of reptiles. She takes picture in on a regular basis of our snakes.
and I have talked to a lot of the teachers in school and to the principal and although
they may not like snakes but they realize the importance of reptiles in our natural world
and are usually eager to let the students experience them.
I would at least bring in some lizards. We have several species and my daughter really loves
them.
Good luck,
John Phillips

PS: The corns we adopted from you last year are doing great. The male corn is my daughters favorite!