Investigation Ongoing Into Animal Castration Incident At SCHS

By Charlie Bauder

The Stephens County School System is commenting on an incident involving a cat at Stephens County High School.

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey said he was notified of the incident happened earlier this week.

“It was brought to my attention on Wednesday evening that at some point, there was a classroom conduction of a castration in our Animal Science class,” said Dorsey. “It involved, I am told, an instructor’s personal cat.”

Dorsey said the school system began an investigation into the matter at that point.

He said that investigation has covered several areas.

“We have had high school administration looking into one, our first concern, about the safety of our students, making sure there were no protocols we need to be checking on there so that is being done,” said Dorsey. “Also, we are making sure we review the curriculum and appropriate protocols with our staff. We want to make sure that is also being done. Concerning any further questioning of the staff member involved, that person has chosen to resign, so we are not able to follow up with that. The teacher that resigned was Mr. Hebert.”

Dorsey said that while this was an Animal Science class in the Agriculture program, this was not appropriate.

“Under certain conditions and in the appropriate setting, a farm setting, discussing livestock management, certainly with consents and notifications, it might have a place,” said Dorsey. “In a classroom and any type of pet activity, we certainly would not condone.”

He went on to say that the school took this incident seriously and looked at it carefully.

“We certainly share concerns anytime we find something that we would consider outside the norms, certainly want to make sure that all of us are acting appropriately, both students and staff, to be able to ensure that we are doing the right things at all times,” said Dorsey.

Meanwhile, Toccoa-Stephens County Humane Shelter Director Jeff Roberts said that Animal Control is also investigating the matter and has reached out to other state and local agencies regarding the situation.