wanton destruction

One of my favorite things at my high school is something we call our "Living Laboratory". A few years ago, some teachers and a bunch of students decided to convert an unused hillside into an Environmental Science project. They made trails, planted shrubs and trees, and even dug a pond. They have continued working the land since then, and it has become a unique teaching environment for all kinds of classes.

When we did our mask-making project, we spent the whole day out in the lab, and it was really nice to have the space to work and play in. We also used it when we presented our masks back to the class, fully decorated. There is a trail in the lab that leads to a quiet hillside covered in pine needles. Ideal setting for class presentations.

And now some vandals have decided to try and take this away from us.

The Oakland Tribune did a story on it. You can read it here.

The vandals not only destroyed a lot of property. They also ran off with a lot of tools, making the restoration process more difficult.

This really makes me sick. Several of my students have put a lot of sweat into that place, and they didn't deserve to have it trampled by some idiot who felt like destroying something. I wish I had something profound to say, or some way of understanding what might have been behind something like this, but really I'm just feeling sad.

Posted: Wed - November 26, 2003 at 06:05 PM

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wanton destruction

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