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Reptiles scale the halls
By Danielle Baudhuin
posted 11:25:58 AM CST, May 24, 2007
Biology teacher John Reiland’s classroom was temporarily transformed into a petting zoo on Friday, May 18. Tanks filled with everything from toads to snakes lined the tables while West alumni Brian Caulk and Stacy Schrader educated science students on all things reptilian.
“Well, people don’t know a lot about reptiles,” said Caulk. “[I like] being able to educate them on stuff they don’t know already, knowing that everything you say won’t be a roll of the eyes.”
Unfortunately for the two reptile-philes, sometimes students shy away from the creepy crawlers.
“The reactions aren’t very exciting,” said Schrader. “I mean, we come in here and we say ‘Oh, we’ve got some snakes!’ and half the class screams and they say, ‘No no- we don’t want to see them!’ It’s disappointing, because you’re bringing them in so that people can see animals they don’t usually see. They just go hide in the back corner.”
Sometimes, all it may take is a bit of coaxing and encouragement to get some more students involved. After hearing about the reptiles, most students become more comfortable with them.
“I spend most of the day just saying, ‘Come on, you know you want to touch them,’” said Schrader.
This year, there was a bit of excitement during one of the shows, a moment which gave one student a very close look at the animals.
“Someone got a toad thrown at their face,” said Caulk.
Schrader, however, had a slightly different perspective on the story.
“I didn’t throw it! It leaped out of my hands and I caught it,” she said. “He only got out like, a few inches from my hand. But I was next to a girl and she screamed.”
Although the annual show at West may be fun, Schrader and Caulk have larger ambitions for their reptile troupe.
“We want to open a pet shop,” Schrader said. “The local reptile shop, Aquarium Pets, closes on Sundays and Mondays to clean and stock and all that kind of stuff, and we were hoping to close a day or two and have one day a week where we open, kind of like this, and do the show in the reptile store.”
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