jfh
Member.
Well, he's been charged--and as you can see below, there is more to the story than what we were originally told.
..from the Mpls Star Tribune--October 30th:
IMO, the situation remains complex, if the inferences in the story are to be believed--but I don't see this as worthy of felony charges.
..from the Mpls Star Tribune--October 30th:
A former high school principal who shot two orphaned kittens on school property was angered that day by the pervasive smell of skunk, according to a criminal complaint.
Wade Pilloud, 38, who has resigned as principal at the Indus school on the Canadian border, was charged Monday with felony possession of a dangerous weapon on school property and two gross misdemeanors: reckless handling of a weapon and criminal damage to property.
Pilloud has said he shot the kittens Sept. 21 because their mother was killed by a trap set for skunks and woodchucks under a mobile home where he lived on school property. He said the kittens couldn't be caught, and "I did not want the kittens to starve or dehydrate to death."
Students heard the shots, parents raised concerns and the story was published across the country. It ignited an Internet controversy about animal treatment, with comments from as far away as Ireland.
The trap under the mobile home had caught a skunk, according to the complaint, filed Monday in Koochiching County District Court in International Falls, Minn. It gave this account:
A custodian had removed the skunk, but the smell was still so bad that Pilloud changed his clothes three times that day and prepared to spend the night in the school instead of in the mobile home.
After Pilloud overheard jokes about the smell late in the day, he "got up, stated that he quit, slammed the door and left the building," the complaint said.
Staff members then saw him fire two shots in the area of the trailer with a 28-gauge shotgun. School was over, but members of the volleyball C team, practicing about 360 feet away, heard the shots. About 35 people were in or around the school.
A custodian later found a fist-sized hole punched in a bifold cafeteria door.
The school, part of the South Koochiching/Rainy River District, is between Birchdale, Minn., and Indus, west of International Falls and about 320 miles north of the Twin Cities.
Pilloud lived in the mobile home weekdays because his home is in Blackduck, Minn., about 100 miles away. He had asked a student to set the trap because animals were damaging the mobile home, the complaint said.
The school district said no one was in danger from the shooting, but Pilloud was placed on leave. He later resigned. He received a settlement of six months' pay or $31,500, said Joseph Flynn, the district's Twin Cities attorney.
Internet comments from elsewhere have called Pilloud "callous,"a poor example" of humanity and "a disgrace to the teaching profession."
However, Dale Erickson, a school board member, said local reaction was "mostly that it was an unfortunate incident." There was no humane society nearby to rescue the kittens, he said, and guns are common in the rural area. "If I saw a young lad walking with a shotgun, I'd wonder if he's getting any birds today," he said.
Superintendent Jerry Struss and Pilloud declined to comment Monday. However, Pilloud said earlier that he regretted the shooting "because of what it has done to me and my family," but the kittens should have been disposed of, perhaps by other means, "to end their suffering."
Wade Pilloud, 38, who has resigned as principal at the Indus school on the Canadian border, was charged Monday with felony possession of a dangerous weapon on school property and two gross misdemeanors: reckless handling of a weapon and criminal damage to property.
Pilloud has said he shot the kittens Sept. 21 because their mother was killed by a trap set for skunks and woodchucks under a mobile home where he lived on school property. He said the kittens couldn't be caught, and "I did not want the kittens to starve or dehydrate to death."
Students heard the shots, parents raised concerns and the story was published across the country. It ignited an Internet controversy about animal treatment, with comments from as far away as Ireland.
The trap under the mobile home had caught a skunk, according to the complaint, filed Monday in Koochiching County District Court in International Falls, Minn. It gave this account:
A custodian had removed the skunk, but the smell was still so bad that Pilloud changed his clothes three times that day and prepared to spend the night in the school instead of in the mobile home.
After Pilloud overheard jokes about the smell late in the day, he "got up, stated that he quit, slammed the door and left the building," the complaint said.
Staff members then saw him fire two shots in the area of the trailer with a 28-gauge shotgun. School was over, but members of the volleyball C team, practicing about 360 feet away, heard the shots. About 35 people were in or around the school.
A custodian later found a fist-sized hole punched in a bifold cafeteria door.
The school, part of the South Koochiching/Rainy River District, is between Birchdale, Minn., and Indus, west of International Falls and about 320 miles north of the Twin Cities.
Pilloud lived in the mobile home weekdays because his home is in Blackduck, Minn., about 100 miles away. He had asked a student to set the trap because animals were damaging the mobile home, the complaint said.
The school district said no one was in danger from the shooting, but Pilloud was placed on leave. He later resigned. He received a settlement of six months' pay or $31,500, said Joseph Flynn, the district's Twin Cities attorney.
Internet comments from elsewhere have called Pilloud "callous,"a poor example" of humanity and "a disgrace to the teaching profession."
However, Dale Erickson, a school board member, said local reaction was "mostly that it was an unfortunate incident." There was no humane society nearby to rescue the kittens, he said, and guns are common in the rural area. "If I saw a young lad walking with a shotgun, I'd wonder if he's getting any birds today," he said.
Superintendent Jerry Struss and Pilloud declined to comment Monday. However, Pilloud said earlier that he regretted the shooting "because of what it has done to me and my family," but the kittens should have been disposed of, perhaps by other means, "to end their suffering."
IMO, the situation remains complex, if the inferences in the story are to be believed--but I don't see this as worthy of felony charges.
