Moose on a school yard

Ok, so earlier this week there was an incident at a local middle school involving some students and a young bull moose. The local media and school would tell you that it was 2 children throwing small pebbles and sticks at a sick moose which then fell over and died and the teachers were just right behind the kids and put an end to it immediately..

This is a lie. I have heard from one who knows more about what happened that there is a bit of a cover up going on. Here is what I understand of the situation: 3 PE classes were let out without anyone checking the grounds for moose, which are common this time of year and it is common practice to check for them before letting kids run loose. This was not done. The kids were supposed to be running laps, some of them were. Most of the students were doing more or less what they should have been doing. But there were many who were not. And teachers were not a mere "minute or two" behind the children. I have heard that they were left basically unattended for upwards of 20 minutes.

The moose was loose in one side of the yard and after initially being startled by the kids (with the rocks and the sticks..) it charged towards one of the kids who was running laps. This child, and others could have been seriously injured or killed. But the moose got caught in the fencing. He thrashed around so badly that he got his antler caught and eventally ripped one of them out of his own head. Even this was not enough for these children, however, as they continued to torment it. (Others did go off to look for teachers at some point.) The moose then threw itself severa times against another fence or building until it died. It's death has been ruled "winter kill" (a common thing up here in early spring when young moose who haven't had enough food over the winter just die off at random...) and the "next in line" for the moose kill list were called and the moose was butchered for food there on the play ground.

This moose well may have been sickly due to poor diet, and may well have eventually died on it's own. But it might also have lived if it hadn't had to deal with the torment and torture it went through that day. There were supposed to have been 3 teachers out in the yard with the kids that day. They were not providing the proper supervision for these kids. It is my understanding, as mentioned, that these kids were basically unattended for about 20 minutes. That is enough time for all sorts of things to go wrong. These kids received a "talking to" and the "2 ringleaders" have apparently been suspended, though who knows for how long.

Part of me really hopes that the information I have is wrong. But most of me knows that, if anything, it's only missing details that would make me cry even more. If these kids can do this, be part of this on the school yard, what are they doing that we don't know of yet? These kids have been taught for years that if you see a moose, you go the other way, slowly and carefully. Moose can kill. And they are hunted in the wild by pack animals.. so a pack of kids is just as scary for the moose and it's instincts are going to kick in and make it that much more dangerous.
It's very sad that this sort of thing could happen...