BRENTWOOD — A typically quiet Liberty Union school board meeting became the scene of controversy Wednesday evening when animal rights activists — some holding signs — accused district officials of entombing feral cats to die in certain school buildings.
The accusations — which district officials deny — stem from work that maintenance crews are doing at certain sites to install seals beneath portable classroom buildings, which oftentimes have gaps beneath them large enough for small animals to climb through. District officials say that in recent weeks, animal activists have been trespassing on school grounds and illegally removing those seals with crowbars and screwdrivers.
The activists counter that removing the seals was a moral decision, intended to prevent cats that were stuck inside from starving. Karen Kops, president of the Homeless Animal Response Program, wrote in a news release that she witnessed trapped cats running out from under a building after one seal was removed, and other activists have reported hearing animal noises underneath sealed portables as well.
“How could (students) possibly think about quadratic equations when a cat beneath them is struggling to survive,” said Stephanie Buzzard of No-Kill for Contra Costa County, one of six activists who spoke.
Another speaker, Julie Rasmussen, showed photos of cats sitting behind screens located beneath district portable units and said that those cats had been “entombed.” She also brought in a one-way door and asked officials to install such doors on the sealed buildings, which would allow any trapped animals to escape.
Assistant Superintendent Adam Clark said that officials began sealing the buildings after learning of a bad flea problem at one of their sites, and added that they were working to ensure cats were not being trapped.
“These were our students with severe learning disabilities at adult education, and we had to shut the classes down and displace those students because they were being attacked by fleas,” Clark said, noting it was the district’s final straw.
Later in the meeting, after public comment had ended and many of the activists had left, district Superintendent Eric Volta read a statement saying that the district had agreed to use one-way doors from the beginning and was taking other precautions. In a subsequent interview, he also said that the district was open to using light, plastic one-way doors like animal activists want.
“If an animal decomposes under the building, that’s not a good classroom environment. We don’t want these things under our buildings,” Volta said. “We have one-way doors all over our campuses.”
Activists have asked the district to allow them to oversee the one-way door installation, but Volta said that wouldn’t be proper and that the district could handle installation on its own. Clark also said some activists had been taking things too far and that the district even had to file a restraining order against one activist who refused to cease trespassing on campus.
The district has also explicitly forbidden anyone from setting up feral feeding stations on school grounds, which some folks had been doing until recently. Rasmussen said she and others had worked out a deal with the former superintendent that allowed them to feed on certain campuses, and she’s hopeful the district will allow them to feed ferals on campuses, but away from people. But that’s not on the table for discussion, Volta said.
“I don’t want to upset them — they’re nice people, and they feel like they’re doing the right thing,” he said. “I just don’t want them on our campus, and I don’t feel like that’s too much to ask. If they can find some other place to feed, so be it.”
Contact Nate Gartrell at 925-779-7174 or follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/NateGartrell.
