PETA has been alerted to the Cabarrus County, North Carolina, school system’s apparent plans to demolish Beverly Hills Elementary School and Coltrane-Webb Elementary School in the coming weeks, even though active chimney swift nests are known to be in the buildings’ chimneys. Reportedly, these birds have made temporary homes at the Beverly Hills Elementary School location for decades. They typically migrate to South America by the end of September, so the school system only needs to push its plans back by a few months. If it doesn’t, demolishing the buildings would likely result in a horrific and painful death for them, as they would have little or no chance of being able to escape before being crushed to death by debris. Furthermore, these federally protected birds, who play an important role in the local ecosystem and who are merely trying to eke out an existence, would have no way of relocating their eggs or young even if any adults managed to escape.
We understand that residents of Cabarrus County made officials aware of these concerns and have filed a class action lawsuit attempting to halt the school system’s plans. We contacted officials ourselves, attempting to appeal to their sense of compassion, but have been met with silence.
These birds need you to speak up! Please contact the following Cabarrus County school system officials asking them to immediately reschedule plans to demolish the buildings until any chimney swifts living there have migrated south for the season:
Dr. John Kopicki
Superintendent
john.kopicki@cabarrus.k12.nc.us; superintendent@cabarrus.k12.nc.us
704-260-5600
Kristy Spade
Superintendent’s Senior Executive Assistant
kristy.spade@cabarrus.k12.nc.us
Dr. Kelly Propst
Superintendent’s Chief of Staff
katherine.propst@cabarrus.k12.nc.us
Mr. Brian Cone
Director of Architecture, Planning, and Construction
brian.cone@cabarrus.k12.nc.us
704-260-5654
Mr. George Lowder
Executive Director of Operations
george.lowder@cabarrus.k12.nc.us
704-260-5671
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