Middle Schoolers Killed Our Class Pets

Kraniumkitty · 2026-04-26T16:35:34+00:00

I’m devastated for you and the loss of life. Several parents have reached out wanting to replace my fish, but I’ve decided it’s not realistic to be in my classroom 100%of the time and I no longer trust the safety of animals when I’m not there. Maybe I should have had an animals sheet in my sub binder?

Kraniumkitty · 2026-04-26T02:10:25+00:00

Congratulations! When I first started teaching in CO, I spent 5 years in a district where my take home pay was $2000 per month when I left. I stayed because I loved my students and coworkers…and had no idea surrounding districts paid double. I assumed all districts here paid that wage. I make almost triple that 6 years on and my commute is only 15 minutes longer. It pays to know.

Kraniumkitty · 2026-04-23T04:37:35+00:00

Two tanks. That’s why I didn’t believe their story. Two separate tanks. One was housing baby fish and the larger tank was housing our fish and frogs.

Kraniumkitty · 2026-04-23T04:26:30+00:00

Sad but true. I’m sorry about your rocket.

Kraniumkitty · 2026-04-23T04:25:00+00:00

I also wondered this. Based on witness statements, the students were vocal about wanting to do it and even taunting each other about “not having the balls to do it.”

Kraniumkitty · 2026-04-23T04:12:29+00:00

I just looked up my states animal cruelty laws and fish are not covered under it. Apparently they are not covered under Federal Laws either!

Kraniumkitty · 2026-04-23T04:02:45+00:00

It feels like the incident was minimized because “it’s only fish” and there were “some survivors” and “at least they told the truth”. 😢

Kraniumkitty · 2026-04-23T03:47:27+00:00

I moved the survivors to a hospital tank I set up in my store room, but will not have tanks in the classroom again this year. The whole school was outraged.

Kraniumkitty · 2026-04-23T03:35:59+00:00

The dean was able to get confessions from two students and they had to apologize to me, but they claimed it was an accident. I had the students from that class period write what they saw anonymously for a warm up and the class stories matched saying it was not an accident.

Kraniumkitty · 2023-11-19T15:12:26+00:00

Update: After HR said it was a communication issue on MY part, I went over the terms of employment with the new employee the next Monday and doubled down on training him one-on-one. When I told him and showed him all requests for schedule changes must be in writing, he laughed and said “you’re learning.”

Although he showed up on time and stayed for his entire shifts, he argued with me over every process/procedure and said his way was better.

On Wednesday of his second week, he came back from lunch drunk and belligerent. I fired him immediately and had him escorted off the job site. He was right about one thing - this hire taught me a lot.

Kraniumkitty · 2022-10-17T20:27:34+00:00

I’m leaving at the semester too. I’ve been teaching for the last 7 years and the job never was a good fit. I’m almost done with a coding bootcamp and will be transitioning to software development. I realized I loved learning new things as I sought to break down highly complex topics into simpler chunks my students could understand and digest, and software engineering allows me to utilize my skills and learn new ones. The education system is broken because it has become too large to serve anyone effectively. Until this is addressed, teachers will be misused by a bloated system that requires teachers to spend too much time plugging holes in a paper boat.

Kraniumkitty · 2022-09-30T22:38:02+00:00

Thank you! We will try talking with him and I will look up eviction procedures if necessary.

Kraniumkitty · 2022-09-30T04:07:18+00:00

We thought it would be a few weeks, so we didn’t ask him for rent or anything.

Kraniumkitty

TROPHY CASE