Imagine you’re having a bad day, and you walk into your class to see a fluffy bunny in its hutch. Your day brightens. This is what class pets have done for students at Milton.
High School Science Teacher Ms. Kathleen Bower said that she has had class pets since she was a student teacher. “It’s always been therapy for the kids,” she added.
According to Ms. Bower, former Milton Middle School Principal Mr. Steven Bish first approved class pets in 1993.
When she was a student teacher at Wyoming Valley West Middle and High School in Wilkes-Barre, her co-op teacher had class pets. “I think the most interesting class pet he had was a parrot,” Ms. Bower said.
Ms. Bower’s first class pet was a turtle when she began her teaching career more than 30 years ago. Since then, she’s had bearded dragons, rats, mice, snakes, turtles, fish, hamsters, guinea pigs, ducks, eels and has hatched chicks as class pets. This year she has one bearded dragon, one leopard gecko, one crested gecko and a rabbit.
“We teach (students) how to handle animals because it’s different for every animal. That’s part of the educational process of having them,” Ms. Bower said.
“Students who come accustomed to taking care of them and have some sort of attachment to them” are allowed to take them home over school breaks, Ms. Bower said, adding that the school has to get prior verification from the students’ parents before that happens. “I usually make a care sheet for them, and we send them home with cages and food,” she added.
Other teachers that currently have had class pets are Ms. Lisa Mattern-Stokes with a rabbit (Mocha); Ms. Dawn Hoffman and Ms. Malika Romine also have rabbits.
“Mocha makes my day better. She’s super nice and friendly. I love seeing her in Ms. Bower’s Anatomy class at the end of the day,” said Junior Samantha Krall. “I’ve learned how to care for her and how important it is to treat animals correctly.”
