Fate of class pet tilapia lies in result of 7th grade debate
NEW YORK -- It is finals week at the Ella Baker School in New York City, but one classroom of seventh and eighth graders have a bigger fish to fry.
Pablo, a 13-inch tilapia, is at the center of a hot debate - should the students eat it, or not eat it.
"It will be kind of sad to kill Pablo," said 13-year old Julianna Angalada.
During a class field trip to New York's Chinatown last month, math teacher Michael Paoli bought five tilapias as class pets. But as fate would have it, four died, leaving Pablo, the sole survivor, to win a place in their hearts.
"He keeps us laughing," said Diva Stanfill-Evans. "He makes the room feel alive when everyone's just there doing their work."
The fishy friendship flourished until the teacher proposed a Faustian dilemma.
"Should we eat the fish, should we not eat the fish?" Mr. Paoli posed the question to his students and decided to let them make the tough call.
"It would show that their voice matters," said Paoli. "Their voice dictates what we do in this classroom."
The debate is part of an aquaponics project where students studied and grew an edible ecosystem all year to better understand the relationship between vegetables and fish. They built a vertical garden of vegetables above another fish tank in the school hallway. The debate, whether they should eat the fish or not, is the ethical component of that project.
Some students even expressed concern over Pablo's health.
"His scales are coming off," said Geo Davis. "He doesn't seem that healthy and sometimes he tries to jump out of the tank. I don't understand why people feel like he likes where he is."
Julianna Angalada felt a special bond with Pablo since she put him in the tank.
"Just because he's a fish doesn't mean he doesn't have a life," she argued.
But 12-year-old Shawn Smith disagreed.
"What is the point of us doing all this work raising him to plate size and just deciding to let him live?"
For Kaila Ayala, it will be too hard to watch Pablo die.
"I probably wouldn't come to school the day they were killing him," said Ayala. "I would feel really sad."
TeachKind, PETA's humane-education division, contacted Mr. Paoli, and made its case to the class one day via Skype. The organization urged them to make a 'compassionate decision.'
Meanwhile, emotions are boiling over during the final week of debates.
"It is literally the same thing as going to the store and buying it," one student argued. "You will not cry if that stupid fish dies!"
As the debate goes on, time is running out. The class must decide before Wednesday's end-of-school barbeque - will the menu feature chicken or fish?
If the class decides not to eat Pablo, he will be donated to the Oko Farms in Brooklyn.