One strange morning, Junior Richard Kennedy decided to pick up a dead deer on the side of the road.

Carefully, he placed trash bags in his car and grabbed a tarp from his house with which he could carry the deer. After wrapping up the animal in the tarp, Kennedy “manhandled” it into his car while simultaneously worrying that someone driving by might think that he looked suspicious as he lifted a body shaped tarp into his vehicle.

Unfortunately, the trash bags did not help because the deer landed elsewhere and leaked fluids all over the interior. Kennedy then traveled to the high school.

You might ask why he would do such a thing. The answer? For an ecology project.

Every year ecology teacher, Eric Cosman assigns an independent research project. His students choose a subject within ecology that interests them to study by doing independent research. Cosman says that they might “just do some research but [he prefers] something hands on.”

For his ecology project, Kennedy is doing a study on animal decomposition. He will watch a deer carcass decompose and take pictures of the progression, “examining what insects appear at different stages of decomposition.”

Kennedy explains that he “wanted to do a unique project for ecology that no one else has done.” He has “always had an inherent curiosity of decomposition” since his family previously owned a funeral home. “I also thought it would be really fascinating to view the daily pictures in a time lapse, and watch weeks of decomposition in a few seconds” adds Kennedy.

Cosman says that he has had “thousands of projects over the last ten years.” He adds that he has had students who have “[watched] things decompose [for their projects].”

Senior Jimmy Leppert, who is also in Kennedy’s eighth period ecology class, is growing mint in the green house and thinks that Kennedy’s project is “awesome.”

Another ecology student, Senior Matt Muscato, is “working on the plants in the atrium [for his project.]” Regarding Kennedy’s project he says, “I don’t think it’s gross; that’s science.”

Once Kennedy arrived at school with the deer carcass, he put it on a tarp and dragged it into a field and set up the project. This “perfect deer” was killed only the night before and still was in the early stages of decomposition. After taking some pictures, he cleaned up and checked his voicemail. The message was from assistant principal Richard Faccio explaining that Kennedy was not allowed to leave the deer on school property under any circumstances.

Faccio explains, “I had to get approval from Mrs. Erdle because she oversees everything.”

After initially finding out that he did not have permission to place the deer on school property he explains, “Reluctantly, I went back out into the field, and once again carried the now fly covered and somewhat bloody deer back to my car.”

Kennedy then disposed of the deer at his land in Bristol where he knew the coyotes would appreciate the feast.

A few days later, Kennedy e-mailed Principal Lynne Erdle asking for permission to carry out the project. He succeeded in gaining permission; however, he lost the perfect deer.

Erdle says that Kennedy needed approval because, “it’s on school grounds.” She says, “I’m certain that it’s something very interesting to the ecology students.”

Cosman hopes that Kennedy will learn “how nature takes its course and how nature breaks down things naturally.”

“ [Kennedy] is a unique kid and this is a unique project,” says Cosman. He adds, “It’s crazy but it’s also real simple.”

“ I am still searching for a replacement deer” says Kennedy. He had heard of two prospects of recently killed deer yet he did not find them. “If anyone finds a deer killed by a car I would be very grateful if they could give me the location of the deer as soon as possible,” says Kennedy.

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