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Days before graduation, Fitch principal's chickens attacked
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
Chickens belonging to Austintown Fitch High School Principal Chris Berni are missing.
They didn’t simply fly the coop. Berni suspects they fell victim to a “very evil, disrespectful prank.”
Berni had eight chickens in a coop behind his home in a rural area in the township. He said he checked on them about 4:45 a.m. Tuesday and found “feathers everywhere” in the coop and on the ground and five birds missing.
“Near the henhouse on the ground was a Budweiser can, and I know a predator like a raccoon doesn’t drink Budweiser,” Berni quipped.
He quickly realized something bad had happened.
“It was disbelief and absolute shock and just feeling violated. And also thinking ... that I have a wife and four kids, wanting to just look out for them and knowing that people know where we live, and who is to say they don’t come back and do something.”
One chicken was recovered in a burlap sack behind the backstop of a baseball field on campus. The chicken was alive within the sack, and a second empty Budweiser can was left by the sack.
Berni said the empty beer cans were left as a sign, perhaps a signal of a so-called senior prank.
“I wouldn’t call it a prank. I would say a very evil, disrespectful prank by a very small group of students who probably don’t like what I stand for or some of the hard decisions I’ve had to make,” Berni said. “I’ve had to make a few decisions with a small group of people that would impact graduation, so it’s very possible that same group of students did this as a way to get back at me.”
Four of his eight chickens were still missing Tuesday night. Berni said he intends to buy more chickens if they aren’t found.
Berni, along with a school-resource officer from Austintown police, questioned a number of senior students Tuesday at the school. They were given “about six different names” and “when we talked to these kids, we’re not getting any information,” Berni said. “We may or may not bring closure to this.”
Tuesday was the last day of classes for seniors.
The principal explained he began raising chickens when he taught in the United Local School District in Columbiana County before coming to the Austintown district.
He said he’s had chickens for about four years.
“You can have chickens [in Austintown]. They just have to be housed 100 feet from the dwelling,” said Darren Crivelli, township zoning inspector.