Just Saying No--to Dissecting Frogs

Alicia Silverstone unveiled her latest video Wednesday afternoon at Beverly Hills High, but instead of donning stretch suede for the rock band Aerosmith, she was shunning scalpels--as part of an effort to persuade high school students and their biology teachers to give up dissecting frogs.

And cats and pigs. And even worms. But especially frogs.

The 30-second video is dominated by close-ups of Silverstone caressing and even licking a frog.

“When it comes to animals, there’s no need to be a classroom cutup,” says the 20-year-old actress, whose last trip to the high school was during filming of her breakthrough movie, “Clueless,” in which the main scientific interest of her character, Cher, was the physics of shopping.

On Wednesday, however, as a fresh-faced spokeswoman for the antivivisection group PETA--People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals--Silverstone urged science students to exercise their right to say no in biology lab, a right protected by the state Education Code.

Silverstone recalled how she had received an F in science at a San Mateo junior high for refusing to dissect. “It to me represents exactly what we don’t want our people to be like,” she said.

In the video--a public service announcement that PETA hopes will get nationwide play next week--Silverstone puts it more succinctly: “Biology is the study of life, not death.”

Although most Beverly Hills High School students would undoubtedly be more interested in her diet or fashion hints, or perhaps her tips on how to get a producing deal before the age of 19, the handful of teenagers in Room 132 paid rapt attention to Silverstone’s advice to ask teachers for alternative lessons, including a simulated dissection on CD-ROM, called Digital Frog.

The audience was handpicked for the media event, held after hours in a rented classroom. Their ticket to get in? Compliance with PETA’s ideals.

They came not from Beverly Hills High, but from Crossroads School, the arts-oriented private campus in Santa Monica, where they belong to an animal rights club that is lobbying teachers to stop dissection in the middle school.

“Like Alicia said, we’re so human-centered, we don’t think of other animals who live with us,” said Todd Gonzales, 16, a Crossroads junior.

Frogs have long been a staple of biology classes to help students learn about anatomy. Most schools buy them already dead, sometimes with special dyes injected into their veins for easier viewing. Such frogs cost $4 to $15 apiece, a sum that does not count the special goggles, aprons, gloves and tools required to cut them up.

In the biology department at Beverly Hills High, teacher Linda Burke said that students can opt out of dissection but that “most of them don’t mind, although a lot want to wear gloves.”

Burke said the computerized dissection programs, while good, give “nowhere near the hands-on experience which in science is so important.”

Students at the school did complain that dissection was “icky.” Some expressed moral concerns, as well.

“At the beginning, we were very excited. It’s a very big deal to dissect an animal,” said Amir Ali Nader, 15. “When we opened it, it was just sick.”

But like many Beverly Hills High students, Amir was more interested in Silverstone.

Some students considered waiting two hours to see her, while others criticized her portrayal of their school.

Silverstone signed on with PETA two years ago, saying she had a long-standing interest in protecting animals. The organization immediately paired her with the anti-dissection campaign. “The only thing that makes any sense about being a celebrity to me is this--being able to make a difference,” the actress said.