School to reopen after chicken prank

NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA - February 11, 2008 85 healthy hens, Rhode Island Reds, were laying eggs Monday afternoon at the city's Fox Chase Farm. They're calm and relaxed, but that's a far cry from the disruption they caused earlier in the day at Northeast High School, where the birds were used in a cruel and dirty prank.

Over the weekend chicken feed was spread all over the first and second floors of the school. Then, the birds were released, creating the predictable, unsanitary mess.

The foul play was not discovered until school officials arrived for classes Monday morning. Students got the picture as they arrived, and eventually, classes were cancelled for the entire student body.

School district officials say surveillance video shows four people wearing hoods to shield their identities as they spread the chicken feed, then released the seven-dozen healthy chickens into the hallway.

An expensive clean up effort was carried out all day, and the investigation goes on into who is responsible.

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