Anti-Dissection Issue Unsettled in Board Ruling

A 15-year-old girl who refused to dissect a frog in biology class was told Monday night that she can remain in the class, but her school records will reflect the fact that she failed to perform all the required work.

The Victor Valley Union High School District also ruled that Jenifer Graham’s biology teacher and principal will decide what tests and other requirements she will have to meet in lieu of the dissection.

Jenifer, who was at the meeting Monday night but did not speak to the board, had sought to have the dissection requirement waived on the grounds that killing animals violated her moral standards. She wanted permission to learn frog anatomy by using a computer simulation or a three-dimensional model instead of by cutting up a real frog.

Animal activists had said a favorable decision for the student could save the lives of animals and force educators to take a new look at the way animals are used.

But several members of the five-person board said students need “hands on” experience in various academic disciplines.

“I don’t understand why hands-on experience is needed to study biology,” Jenifer said after the ruling. “What goes on inside a dead animal is irrelevant to me.”

Jenifer’s attorney, Joe Ramsey, said he was disappointed with the decision, saying the board had essentially “passed the buck” by leaving final class requirements up to the teacher and principal.

Ramsey said he had hoped the board would have made the requirements clear in their resolution, instead of giving the responsibility to the teacher and principal.

Court Fight Seen

Ramsey also said that if the district carries through with its intention to make Jenifer’s records show that she failed to perform dissections, he would fight it in federal court on grounds that her moral convictions and her right to receive an education have been violated.

Ramsey argued that such a notation would blemish her record.

“Let’s say she’s a 4.0 student, but she has this caveat on her transcript saying she refused to dissect. If she goes along with a bunch of other applicants at Stanford or Harvard, we believe something like that would make a difference,” he said.

However, Harvard’s assistant dean of admissions, Seamus Malin, said “there would be no eliminations of admissions based on something like that.”

The girl’s mother, Patricia Graham, said the board’s decision to record the refusal in her daughter’s transcript was unsatisfactory.

Called a ‘Black Mark’

“That is not acceptable to us,” Mrs. Graham said. “A notation can be construed as a black mark, which is not fair grading in our opinion.”

Before the meeting, Al Andrews, the district superintendent, said, “I feel we have to be honest and not pretend she did all the work required. It’s a matter of integrity. It’s up to the college to decide whether it (the course) will be recognized.”

He said district officials in Victorville, 110 miles northeast of Los Angeles, are worried that agreeing to Graham’s request will be the “tip of the iceberg.”

“There could be any number of students coming in here and all over the country saying this or that violates their human rights or makes them squeamish or whatever,” Andrews said.

Jenifer, a sophomore at Victor Valley High School, has been a vegetarian for five years. She said she wants to study oceanography, but believes it is wrong to kill animals for research.

“I respect all life, from insects to humans. It’s wrong to have live creatures killed,” she said. “That is a strong moral belief I have.”

Objection to Exploitation

Mrs. Graham is employed by the Theosophical Society of America, a group that incorporates Christian, Hindu and Buddhist thinking and objects to animal suffering and exploitation.

It is not the first time such a dispute has surfaced, said Catherine Bauch of the Humane Society, adding that high school and college students have been contacting the organization for years about alternatives to dissection.

But Jenifer’s is the first known case in which neither the student nor district “is willing to budge,” Bauch said. “Usually some agreement is worked out. And, in reality, most kids in this predicament would give up. But Jenifer is one tough cookie.”

The battle began about two months ago when Jenifer refused to dissect an earthworm in her biology class. She says officials said her beliefs would not be respected unless they were part of an organized religion and she could produce a note from a minister to prove it.

In April, when Jenifer’s class was asked to dissect frogs, she refused again, and with the help of the Humane Society, filed a formal request asking to be allowed to skip dissections without being penalized.