Students taken by a captive audience

LYNN – Breed Middle School teacher Nancy Mades-Byrd struck a nerve when she asked her students to take a side on killer whales in captivity.”Students that don’t normally participate participated in this,” she said. “Everyone had an opinion.”Each year Mades-Byrd requires her eighth grade students to choose a side on a given issue, research and write a paper to support it. In the past topics have been mundane issues, but when Mades-Byrd stumbled across an article “The Killer in the Pool,” from Outside magazine, she thought she’d found a topic her students would really like.”They had some very strong opinions, some were very passionate,” she said. “We had some real debates.”Students read the article and watched parts of “Blackfish,” a film directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite that tells the story of Tilikum, a performing killer whale that killed several people while in captivity. Mades-Byrd said she also had students watch the SeaWorld show “Believe.”And after all the research, students were divided on the issue of whether killer whales should ever be kept in captivity.Rosseirys Delarosa said she visited SeaWorld and saw the show with Shamu, the killer whale. And although she didn’t know then what was going on behind the scenes, neither the article nor the movie swayed her.”They didn’t interview any actual trainers,” she said. “The only people they talked to were old employees who hadn’t worked there in a long time.”Kevin Conway disagreed. Conway said he was very surprised to learn that orcas in the wild live to be 30-50 years old, but those in captivity only live 20-30 years.”That’s not a few years difference, that’s decades,” he said.Not only did students put their opinions on the page for Mades-Byrd, but she also plans to send their papers onto SeaWorld, she said.”I told them they weren’t just writing for an audience of one,” she said.Louis Brooks said he found the idea that SeaWorld officials would be reading his words daunting, but he also believes he has the answer to the issue.”Since all the whales at SeaWorld were born into captivity they’re not missing out and if you release them into the wild they don’t have the skill set to survive,” he said. “If they agree not to take anymore whales and let the ones they have just live out their lives, everyone would be happy.”Yazmin Rosa was swayed by the research. She was pro captivity but in the end said she worries that the whales in captivity don’t have enough to eat.”In the wild they feed on sea lions and the smaller ones penguins,” she said. “In captivity they only eat frozen fish ? SeaWorld is not treating them good enough.”Mades-Byrd noted that the whales are fed enough to keep them alive but kept hungry.”They have to be hungry to do tricks for food,” she said, adding that one of her students pointed out that working to be fed “isn’t a relationship, it’s slavery.”Mades-Byrd said she thinks the kids latched on to the issue mainly because orcas are fascinating creatures.”They’re so outside our everyday experience,” she said.Devontae Rivera is pro captivity but not convinced SeaWorld officials will care about his opinion or his classmates.”Considering the fact it’s a multi-million dollar corporation with setups in a lot of places and we’re eighth-grade students in middle school, I don’t know if they will take our papers seriously,” he said.Megan Molea said that is exactly what she is hoping to get out of the experience.”I hope they will at least acknowledge us,” she said.Mades-Byrd echoed her wish.”I hope they address the students, those that support them and those that don’t,” she said. “I hope either they get a thank you or an explanation.”