A video that has surfaced online of several North East Independent School District high schoolers using a cat's intestines as a jump rope has caused quite the stir. 
 
 The footage posted to SnapChat shows several Churchill High School students playing jump rope with what appears to be the intestines of a dissected cat. 
 
 You can watch the videos here and here. 
 
 The cat was reportedly being used in the students' anatomy class. 
 
 KENS 5 reached out to officials with NEISD who confirmed that the incident happened in early May at Winston Churchill High School. 
 
 NEISD said that the teacher, in this case, was taught this same lesson in college and felt it was "effective" for demonstrating how long and tough intestines are. 
 
 "This lesson really was not meant to be disrespectful or degrading in any way. And when the teacher found out that that's how it was being portrayed, they were actually very upset about it," NEISD spokeswoman Aubrey Chancellor said. 
 
 Some students also came to their teacher’s defense. One emailed KENS 5 and said, in part: 
 
 “She is passionate in regards to her profession and continues to inspire us all through education.” 
 
 According to Chancellor, neither the students nor teacher will face punishment in this case, because there was "no ill will." However, the district said that it is time to update the lesson plan. 
 
 “At this point, we don’t think that we will be using this same lesson,” Chancellor said. “Moving forward, we will need to find a more appropriate but equally effective lesson in the future.” 
 
 The video caught the attention of the animal rights group PETA, who said that the students should be held accountable for the unethical treatment of the animal's parts. 
 
 "Studies show that classroom animal dissection can foster callousness toward living beings, and these gruesome 'jump rope' videos are a particularly sad example," PETA Senior Director of Youth Outreach and Campaigns Marta Holmberg said. "PETA is calling on Winston Churchill High School to teach its students to respect life and science by replacing crude and cruel animal dissection with humane and effective non-animal teaching methods." 
 
 PETA has also offered to donate digital dissection resources to help Churchill transition to animal-free lessons. The district has yet to say if it will take PETA up on the offer. 
 
 © 2017 KENS-TV ||||| SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A Texas school district says no one will face punishment after video surfaced of high school students using a cat's intestines as a jump rope during a lesson. 
 
 Officials with the North East Independent School District told KENS-TV (http://bit.ly/25aRmCS ) the incident happened earlier this month during an anatomy class at Winston Churchill High School. 
 
 The district said the teacher felt the lesson was "effective" for demonstrating how long and tough intestines are. 
 
 Spokeswoman Aubrey Chancellor says the lesson was not meant to be disrespectful. She says neither the students nor teacher will be punished because there is no "ill will." But she says the district will update the lesson plan. 
 
 Animals rights group PETA told the TV station the school should replace "cruel and crude" dissection methods with animal-free lessons. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Information from: KENS-TV, http://www.kens5.com ||||| Photos View photos zoom 
 
 Call it a selfie gone wrong: the Toronto Zoo is investigating two high school students who posted a video of themselves trespassing to photograph Humphrey the polar bear cub during a school field trip. 
 
 The video — sent to the Star by one of the students — shows two teenagers from Michael Power/St. Joseph High School jumping a zoo barrier and approaching the polar bear cub. 
 
 “That’s actually so mean, he needs more attention,” one of the students is heard saying. “Tell us if someone is coming!” 
 
 The students are seen reaching through the wire fence and touching Humphrey, who tries to lick them. 
 
 “We liked the polar bear and wanted a picture of it,” said Samuel Gonzalez, who took the selfie video. “It looked lonely, so we thought, ‘Oh let’s just go closer and take a picture.’ ” 
 
 Gonzalez and his friend, Georgianna Nagy, both 16, were told by a zoo employee not to touch the bear and leave the fenced-off area. Gonzalez said they complied and continued with the field trip. 
 
 Before they left the zoo, a second staff member came over and told them not to trespass in the future. 
 
 “They were really nice about it,” said Gonzalez. “We thought it was like a slap on the wrist or something.” 
 
 Gonzalez later posted the trespassing video to his Instagram account and thought the matter was over. 
 
 But when he returned to school this past Tuesday, he was in for a surprise. 
 
 “The vice-principal was really mad with us,” said Gonzalez. “Other teachers told me that the whole school — 2,500 students — was banned from the zoo for life. And that (the zoo) wanted to press charges against us or something. I was like, ‘OK, what?’ ” 
 
 Zoo spokeswoman Jennifer Tracey said this is not the case. “We are an educational institute and so are they,” she said. “We would never ban a school for life.” 
 
 Tracey said the zoo first saw the video on social media and is taking the matter very seriously. 
 
 “We are conducting a thorough investigation with the co-operation of the school involved,” said Tracey. “The investigation is still open so I can’t comment much more, but we want to resolve this directly with the school without contacting the Toronto Police Service.” 
 
 The zoo has three adult polar bears as well as Humphrey the cub. They are kept behind two barriers for safety, Tracey said. 
 
 “It’s basically a double barrier, with signs clearly posted in front of it: ‘Do not cross the barriers, danger,’ ” she said. “And the students apparently jumped it. It’s kind of ridiculous what they’ve done. It shows an absolute disregard for rules and regulations.” 
 
 Joseph Brisbois, principal of Michael Power, said he has no idea why Gonzalez thinks all students will be banned for life from the zoo. 
 
 “None of that’s true,” said Brisbois. “We want to make this an educational followup to make sure this type of thing doesn’t happen again.” 
 
 Brisbois spoke with the zoo on Thursday and they are working to make this a learning experience for the students involved. 
 
 The school is also meeting with parents on Friday to discuss the incident. Gonzalez’s mother, Maria Ravelo, said she is not pleased with her son’s behaviour. 
 
 “I don’t approve of Samuel doing this,” she said. “He knows I am not happy with him. Teenagers always think they are right when they are wrong.” 
 
 Gonzalez said he now understands what he did was wrong, but at the time he didn’t see any signs telling them not to jump the fence. He said the cub looked lonely and he just wanted to get closer. 
 
 Humphrey and his two siblings were born last November but the other cubs died when their mother couldn’t produce enough milk to feed them. 
 
 Humphrey is now thriving and is beautiful, said Tracey, adding she understands why people want to get closer to the bear. 
 
 “But there are plenty of places to take pictures and selfies with Humphrey,” she said. “You do not have to jump a barrier to do that.” 
 
 Ravelo doesn’t think the school or the zoo should take drastic measures with the students. And while she’s not excusing her son’s behaviour, she has a question of her own.
– A "concerned whistleblower" blew long and hard by sending a video to PETA that showed a Texas high school class jumping rope with cat intestines—but the school district says it was all part of a lesson plan that wasn't meant to be cruel to animals, per KENS 5, and the teacher won't be disciplined, the AP reports. The incident happened in an anatomy class at Winston Churchill High School in San Antonio in early May, with the unidentified teacher using the technique to show how long and resilient cat intestines are (she had witnessed a similar demo when she was a student at Texas A&M University, MySanAntonio.com notes). The teacher and the juniors and seniors shown in the video, which a North East Independent School District spokeswoman says was apparently posted to a student's social media account, are "very upset" about how the incident is being portrayed. "This was not meant to be degrading or disrespectful," she says. "The idea of the lesson was to explore the tensile strength of the organs." But while the school is sticking by the teacher's good intentions, PETA isn't taking the video lightly. "Behavior that makes light of the suffering and mutilation of animals is not only disturbing but also violates leading science education organizations' guidelines, which state that classrooms must treat animals respectfully and ethically," the group said in a statement. The teacher won't be disciplined, but she'll likely be rearranging how she teaches this particular subject. "Moving forward, we will need to find a more appropriate but equally effective lesson in the future," Chancellor tells KENS 5. PETA says it's got dissection resources that can help the school move to animal-free experiments; the school isn't saying yet whether it will check out PETA's offer. (A PETA video got the owner of the Life of Pi tiger in trouble.)