The student parking lot is home to two kinds of animals, one being chickens and the other being cats.
The group of stray cats are most active at night and heavily rely on the students of Leesville for their food. Around the staircase, you can see bowls of food students have left out for the cats.
The flock of chickens often hide in the bushes during the day but students can spot them wandering after school hours as seen in the video attached. There are over five of them and they are not wild chickens. The flock actually belongs to a house neighboring the school. During the day however they wander off to the student parking lot.
The chickens that Richards mentions belong to the school and are the ones that were bought this school year for the foods class. These chickens live in a chicken coop by the Murphy Building and are also one of the animals that Leesville inhabits. Unlike the parking lot chickens, these ones are not feral.
Another example of an animal that actually belongs to the school (or a staff member in this case) are the fish who are housed in Mrs. Bullards classroom. The tank is well established and a highlight of the classroom.
Mrs. Bullard isn’t the only one with a fish tank either — Mrs. Lawless and Mrs. Wrayno have fish tanks in their classrooms.
Mrs. Lawless, a marine ecology teacher, said, “I think having a tank in the classroom makes it more interactive… especially when you’re teaching a class that deals a lot with marine animals it’s nice to have some sort of marine animal for students to look at.”
Leesville Road High School is open for all living creatures, from humans to chickens all are welcome and provide entertainment and resources for the school. The chickens provide eggs for the food class, and the fish provide education and learning opportunities for the science classes.
