By CASEY NEILL
Mohammad shattered by ‘pen pals’ loss…
CHOOK thieves have twice devastated vulnerable children at Noble Park Primary School, prompting calls for help to build a Fort Knox pen.
Principal David Rothstadt said students with traumatic backgrounds had found refuge in the Buckley Street school’s chicken coop.
He said their mood and behaviour had rapidly deteriorated following the thefts, which occurred before the Christmas holidays and two weeks into term one.
“I can say this was bordering on traumatic for both staff and students,” Mr Rothstadt said.
The school community funded and built the chook pen, which was designed to develop children’s understanding of life cycles and supply eggs for a kitchen garden program.
“We had them for a good six months and not a problem – it just worked beautifully for us,” Mr Rothstadt said.
“What we found was there were a whole lot of other spinoffs. It became this really nice quiet area.
“Kids started gravitating towards the chooks at lunchtime.
“Mohammad just loves our chickens. When they were gone he was a very sad young man.”
Leading teacher Susan Vissenjoux said the grade four student started at the school last year and came from war-torn Afghanistan.
She said he’d learnt English through his relationship with the chickens.
“Mohammad used to come down and talk to the chickens every day,” she said
“For Mohammad it was a safe place. They were his friends.”
He made a chicken house from a cardboard box and carried out a variety of other foul-related projects.
“He was just devastated,” Ms Vissenjoux said.
“He’s lonely now. At lunch time he hasn’t got a purpose.”
Mr Rothstadt is hoping to attract sponsorship to create a Fort Knox chicken coop.
“We are determined to reintroduce chooks again, but we know that the likelihood is that, unfortunately, they may be targeted,” he said.
“To make it as secure as it’s going to need to be it’s probably going to cost us about $2000 or $3000.
“We’re going to put a security camera up there and try to make it as safe as possible.”
Parent Peter Kakoullis donated the stolen chickens and is leading the pen improvements.
He urged everyone who lived near the school to be on the lookout for chook nappers.
“I can’t believe that people would steal chickens,” he said.
“Surely someone has seen them. Even if it was done in the middle of the night, people would hear the chooks.”
Call the school on 9546 8811 to assist.
