Mrs. Kleszynski's Violation-Catching Turtle has Piqued the Interest of the MC Community

In the weeks leading up to Halloween—after an incident involving a chemistry  experiment gone wrong with toxic sludge being splashed into Franklin’s enclosure— numerous students reported seeing Mount Carmel chemistry teacher Mrs. Jennifer Kleszynski’s turtle, Franklin, crawling out of his enclosure and joining the rats that dwell in the Graham Center. One curious student followed this group and watched them perform martial arts. 

“It was like the rats were teaching him Karate and the honor code of a ninja,” said sophomore James Raggs. “I have never seen a turtle move as fast as that before!” 

In the days leading up to Halloween, Franklin was observed crawling and jumping around the classroom, signaling students who were using AI on assignments to Mrs. Kleszynski. 

“I have been writing up more students in a day with Franklin than I had in weeks without him,” said Mrs. Kleszynski. “Making sure that students aren’t cheating hasn’t been this easy since before ChatGPT.” 

After many complaints from the student body regarding the increase in write-ups, other teachers are now considering buying turtles for their own classrooms. Individual teachers are not the only ones who have noticed Franklin’s success. The school is now considering taking funding from cameras, anti-cheating software, and self-locking test apps and putting it towards a turtle training program to ensure that students are following the rules. 

“I think that the new wave of turtle security is a good thing,” sophomore Aiden Wainwright said. “It keeps the men of Carmel adhering to the Carmelite values.”

Mount Carmel math teacher Mrs. Valentina Sorescu sees the potential turtles very positively as well. “I will buy three turtles more than Mrs. Kleszynski’s number of turtles and have them monitor every single quiz, test, and final I give for the foreseeable future,” she said. 

Franklin’s value to Mrs. Kleszynski’s chemistry classes is nothing to be overlooked. His case is just a preview of what the future of security and integrity means at Mount Carmel.