GUILDERLAND — Corrina Goutos decided to organize a protest, on her own, against the dissection and vivisection of animals in Guilderland classrooms.

She anticipates about 10 students will hold informative signs this Saturday, March 31, at the corner of Route 146 and School Road in Guilderland Center, just down the street from the high school.

A sophomore at Guilderland High School, Goutos serves as co-president of Last Chance for Animals at GHS and has worked with the club this year and last year on the issues of vivisection and dissection.

Members of the club have met with the high school principal, the supervisor for math and science, and the district superintendent.
"We made some headway; they took us seriously," said Goutos. "But I don’t feel it was totally successful."

Goutos traces her fondness for animals back to the pet hamster, Smitty, that she cared for as a child. She now has two cats, Godzilla and Patches.
About a year-and-a-half ago, she became a vegetarian, she said, because she "felt guilty" eating animals. Her parents were apprehensive about it at first but now, she said, "My Mom gets excited trying new recipes."

This fall, when Goutos was confronted with dissecting a frog in biology class, she objected.
"I was the only one in my class to opt out," she said.
Goutos was allowed to watch a video tape of the dissection instead. "I wasn’t comfortable with seeing those images," Goutos said, so she didn’t look at most of it. Instead, she consulted her textbook to complete her lab assignment.
"My grade wasn’t hurt," said Goutos, who said she has a 95 grade-point average.

Her favorite subject is art and she hopes to pursue a career in design. Based on a portfolio of her work, she was accepted into the New York State Summer School of the Arts.

School’s view

Michael Piscitelli, the supervisor for math and science at the high school, said this week that biology students, typically in 10th grade, dissect frogs and grasshoppers; they also vivisect worms, meaning the worms are cut while still alive.
Honors biology students and physiology students dissect cats and white rats, he said. "We also use fetal pigs and pieces of animals," he said, naming sheep brains and sheep eyes.
"When you’re doing dissection, you really understand the complexity of animal tissue," said Piscitelli.
Computer simulations, he said, do not capture the three dimensions or the texture "or all the properties you can’t see on the screen."

The members of Last Chance were well prepared when they met with him, Piscitelli said, although a lot of their statistics, like those from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), were slanted.
"You can find viewpoints on whatever side you want to argue," he said.

The Last Chance students showed a PETA video from 15 years ago that portrayed cats being killed on site for lab dissection, said Piscitelli.

He contacted each of the school’s vendors for lab animals and said nothing illegal was going on. The cats are euthanized at animal shelters and were slated to be killed, he said. Every pig litter, he said, results in a fetal pig being born that would have died anyway, he said; those fetal pigs are then purchased for dissection.
The frogs, he said, are purchased from frog farms and 95 percent of them are raised "for the food industry — frogs legs are a delicacy," he said; 5 percent are for dissection. The sheep parts come from a slaughterhouse, the remains of sheep that are already being killed, he said.
The school policy is to allow students to opt out of dissection labs, said Piscitelli. "If a student objects because they’re afraid they’ll get sick or because they’re philosophically against it, we’ll give them an alternate assignment," he said. Not many students chose to opt out, said Piscitelli.

After talking with members of Last Chance, it was agreed the opt-out policy will be better publicized in the future, Piscitelli said. Teachers will include a statement about it in their course outlines and inform students of their ability to opt out during the first week of school, he said. Parents will be informed during the school’s open house and teachers will announce dissections well in advance.
"The group didn’t want teachers to be able to ask students why," Piscitelli said of opting out. "Teachers have to understand why. For some students, it’s just a gross-out factor. Then the teacher can say, ‘You don’t have to be the one wielding the instrument. Another student can do the cutting.’
Many times, then, a student will agree to do the lab, said Piscitelli. "You need the dialogue," he said. "If a student says, ‘I’m opposed,’ then the teacher will come up with an alternate assignment." The grade will not be affected, he said.
Piscitelli said of dissection, "It is educationally appropriate, but that is not where the argument lies...The argument lies in: Does the educational experience outweigh the death of the animal" That is a debatable issue. Many science teachers believe it is a worthwhile educational experience."
High School Principal Michael Piccirillo said he was pleased members of Last Chance talked to him about their concerns. "It’s a healthy part of the democratic process," said the principal. "We sat down with representatives of the group because we wanted to respond to their concerns in the way we felt best."
He said of the school, "We do have the opt-out policy and feel comfortable with giving students a choice."

"A debatable topic"
Goutos said on Monday that she is organizing a protest to take the issue to the community, outside of the school. She and the club’s other co-president sent out a press release about the protest on Monday which contained a statement that Last Chance for Animals "is NOT organizing this protest."

The club’s advisor, earth science teacher Kevin Duffy, whom both co-president’s said they respect, has not wanted the club to hold a demonstration, they said.
"Mr. Duffy felt that, being a teacher, he knows more the position the administrators are in," said Goutos. She went on about the protest, "This would be too much of a rebuttal and back in their face after the professional approach we had taken," she said.

Duffy e-mailed The Enterprise on Tuesday that he was unable to be interviewed on school matters without consulting the principal and referred questions to Piccirillo. The co-presidents of Last Chance e-mailed The Enterprise on Wednesday saying the club was in the process of switching teacher advisors.
Asked on Wednesday about the protest, Piccirillo said, "Even though they’re students at the high school, it’s not being sanctioned by the club. What they do is their choice."
He added, "We value the process of discussing issues and concerns. It increases understanding. Understanding doesn’t always mean agreement. That’s OK. That’s the real world. That’s life."
Goutos said of her reasons for pursuing the protest, "I feel it is a totally peaceful way to get media attention and is not rude to the school. We just want to get the word out."

She said, in talking to The Enterprise on Monday, "The main goal is being accomplished now....Our school knows about this. But I don’t think the community at large does....Maybe some people will contact the school. No matter how professional we are, they don’t take us as seriously as an outside adult," said Goutos.
"Ideally," she said of dissection in high school, "we’d like to see it completely abolished."
When Piscitelli was asked what the result would be if Saturday’s protest were to raise community concerns, he said, "If people were that concerned, we should have a discussion so people could hear both sides of the issue. The science teachers could certainly articulate their views...It’s a debatable topic: There are sound educational reasons why we do this but I respect these students’ position — that all life should be valued."