Teachers struggle to care for class pets in pandemic By Megan Henry, The Columbus Dispatch
Published: May 14, 2021, 6:05am
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2 Photos Katie Guehl, a fourth-grade teacher at Indian Run Elementary School in Dublin, Ohio, checks on Daphne Phyllis, a red-eared slider turtle, in her classroom. (Adam Cairns/The Columbus Dispatch) Photo Gallery
COLUMBUS, Ohio As teachers pivoted to online learning last school year, some faced a unique challenge: What would happen to their class pets?
Central Ohio teachers scrambled to find surrogate homes for their turtles, bearded dragons and other class pets last spring and, in some cases, again over the summer.
She has had her class pet, Daphne Phyllis, a red-eared slider turtle
for almost 20 years.
“She is a little staple,” Guehl said of the roughly
25- to 30-year-old turtle named by her students after studying mythology. “The kids know her and … are excited to befriend her. They may not remember my math lesson at the end of the day, but they’ll remember feeding the turtle.”
When COVID-19 shuttered schools in March 2020, Daphne Phyllis went between the houses of two students during the spring and summer months.
Guehl, who is still teaching students remotely because of parent requests, brought Daphne Phyllis back to the classroom this past fall and starts every school day by wheeling her laptop on a cart right up to the tank.