Fly! Be Free!

My teaching partner hatched butterflies in her classroom.

One butterfly remained on Butterfly Release Day.

Butterfly Release Day went badly.

Here's the obituary we posted in the staff lounge:

A Thoughtfully-Written Obituary

for

Bart the Butterfly

Today we celebrate the short, but meaningful, life of Bart the Butterfly: A true warrior among insects.

Bart’s life could never be described as easy. Born in captivity, he lived the majority of his life in a butterfly habitat upside down with his legs flailing in the air.  (He may have struggled with undiagnosed vertigo.) After a long weekend, Bart was mistaken for dead and thrown in the trash. (Yes, we’re looking at YOU, Mrs. T…) Thankfully, he was rescued and freedom was afoot. He was released between the protective limbs of the large tree by the school's stage.

But he fell out.

Like five times.

So then his handlers took him to a smaller tree, but he fell out of that one too.

Twice.

Finally, carried by the cheers and goodwill of the growing crowd around him, he struggled his way to the grass again and landed gently on the ground.

Where a bird ate him.

But not before he was the object of a tug-of-war with another bird.

In all honesty, both birds may have eaten him. Things got scrappy fast, making it hard to tell.

In any event, he was a wonderful butterfly.

In lieu of flowers, a fund has been set up to pay for the counseling needed after witnessing The Butterfly Bloodbath of 2015.

Rest in Pieces Little Upside Down Butterfly Warrior. Your fight is over.


Our staff wrote many kind messages on the memorial.

The candle remained unlit due to city fire regulations.