A Florida teacher accused of drowning at least two raccoons during a science class at Marion County's Forest High School on Monday has been placed on paid administrative leave.
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A student, who provided WFTV with graphic video of the incident, said some students were left with nightmares after the sixth period agricultural science class.
"My friend said that the class before that, they were (putting) the water in the buckets," said the freshman student, who asked to not be identified.
The raccoons killed several chickens, the student said.
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Students and staff members raise chickens and other livestock, which are housed in a shed behind the school.
The student said it took the raccoons several minutes to drown.
"They finally took the cage out of the water, and they trapped it into another smaller cage, where the top of the cage would go down into the water," the student said. "And that's how they killed the second one."
The student was crying, yelling and angry when he returned home from school. His parents weren't happy either.
"We want people to know he had them in cages; he had them trapped," the boy's mother said. "He could have had somebody come and relocate the animals."
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers said they're investigating the legality of the issue.
"While law enforcement tells us the teacher may not have done anything illegal, his actions before students are certainly questionable," the Marion County School District said in a statement.
The student said the teacher asked students to not record the drownings, but many of them did.
The teacher's name hasn't been released.
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