School Board to consider teen’s push to halt mandatory dissections

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Wednesday, April 10, 2002 | 11:04 a.m.

The Clark County School Board will consider Thursday revising the requirement that biology students participate in dissections, thanks to a one-girl animal rights campaign launched by a Boulder City teenager.

Laurie Wolff, 13, first encountered the school district's rules two years ago while in sixth grade. Laurie, normally a straight-A student, had to accept a C in science after she refused to participate in the dissection of an earthworm.

With the encouragement of her grandmother, Louise Anderson, Laurie decided this year to challenge the district's policy. An avid science student, Laurie knew she wanted to change the rules before she was asked to dissect again.

"At a lot of high schools they cut up pigs, frogs, even cats," Laurie said. "I figured the rules saying you have to dissect were probably even more strict there than in sixth grade, so I had better do something now."

The eighth grader collected signatures from her classmates at Garrett Middle School and presented the petition to the School Board at a meeting in December. Since then, Clark County School District administrators have been considering Laurie's request and reviewing what educational alternatives there are to traditional dissection, said Gene Butler, assistant director for math and science curriculum.

Students would have to bring in a signed statement from a parent or guardian asking for the exemption from dissection, Butler said.

"We would make sure this wasn't a casual thing, but based on strong moral and ethical objections," Butler said. "A lot of students feel squeamish at first, but then the experience of dissection sparks a real interest in science."

Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physician's Committee on Responsible Medicine in Washington, disagreed with Butler's take.

"Dissection doesn't teach children anything except to believe that animals are disposable," Barnard said. "When kids learn to spare animals from suffering, it translates into better treatment of humans." More than 70 percent of the nation's medical schools have already abandoned animal dissections in favor of computer models, Barnard said. With the simulator, students can redo the experiment as often as needed, and some programs provide 3-D imaging, Barnard said.

"I applaud the School Board for considering alternatives for kids who do not want to dissect," Barnard said . "Ideally, the next step after letting some kids opt out will be to eliminate dissection altogether."

Butler said it is misleading for Barnard to use medical schools' dropping dissection to bolster his argument. Most medical schools rely more on the study of human anatomy using cadavers, Butler said.

Butler said he wasn't opposed to letting students skip dissection as long as their parents supported the decision. At the same time, Butler said dissection should still be considered a valuable teaching tool.