DATE: Thursday, November 27, 1997           TAG: 9711270668

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   90 lines

GOOSENAPPING SENDS GREAT NECK STUDENTS SLEUTHING CULPRIT IS SENDING LETTERS, PHOTOS OF WELL-TRAVELED PLASTIC MASCOT TO SCHOOL.

Honk if you've seen the Great Neck Middle School goose. She seems to have flown the coop.

Fowl play is suspected.

But seriously, a science project involving Andrea Gengler's special education students has turned into a mystery.

One of the plastic Canada geese standing watch over the pond habitat the children are building in the school's courtyard vanished earlier this month.

But this is no ordinary goose.

She has been sending the students pictures of herself from Beach points of interest and notes updating them on her activities.

``Dear Great Neck Gulls,'' the first letter begins.

``I have decided to take a short vacation away from the pressure of being the goose of Great Neck Middle School to spend time with the family.''

``I will be in the area and will return in a few weeks. I will keep you informed of my travels and the many places I plan to visit.''

Photos and more letters have followed. There's the goose on the Beach. The goose at a duck pond. The goose outside the school division administration building along with the hand-written plea, ``equal pay for plastic school employees.'' The goose outside the Atlantic Wildlife Heritage Museum, ``researching the family tree.''

Gengler's students are determined to solve the mystery of the missing goose.

``They've just gone wild to find this person,'' she said. ``They're asking teachers for samples of their handwriting.''

All of this started when Gengler won one of four grants awarded statewide by the Virginia Education Association.

The money would go to create a habitat with her students. They would build a pond that could be used as an outdoor classroom by the entire school.

Inspiration came from some visiting mallards that had been attracted by bird seed her students had thrown out while learning about migration.

``We decided to build a place for ducks,'' she said.

Work began in September on the pond, which is 9 feet wide, 12 feet long and 2 feet deep.

Before long, other classes and parents had joined in, helping to dig, laying the tarp lining, planting bright yellow petunias and greenery around the edges.

Gengler, newly-selected Teacher of the Year at Great Neck, brought the plastic geese from home and soon they served as mascots to the entire school.

Then, in October, one of the geese disappeared.

The school launched an all-out search. Janitors took to the roofs. P.E. classes searched the fields.

The goose ultimately was spotted outside a house in nearby Chelsea on Halloween, an orange ribbon around his neck. He'd been found in a yard by the grandmother of a Great Neck student and when trick or treaters told her the bird's story, she returned it to the school.

Lesson learned, Gengler began bringing in the geese at night as work continued on the habitat. In early November, the other goose disappeared from inside the school and she was not amused.

``This goose was really real to my children,'' she said. ``I lost my sense of humor real fast.''

Almost immediately, however, the photos and notes began appearing. In her mailbox, on a cafeteria table, in the teachers' lounge.

Gengler swears she doesn't know who has the goose, but her students are hard on the trail of the culprit.

``It's a teacher. I don't think a student would bother to take pictures of it,'' said 13-year-old Elizabeth Ayala, who keeps a file on the ``case'' with classmate Josh Sisley.

``We know the teacher. He's acting really funny. He's quacking in the hallway.''

The suspect is not being identified in this story because he hasn't been charged with goosenapping, but he looked awfully suspicious while visiting Gengler's classroom recently.

Her six students have tried comparing handwriting samples taken from teachers, but the crafty conniver keeps changing his penmanship.

He sloppily left evidence of a footprint in the sand in one picture, however, leading the young sleuths to deduce that he is a he.

The students, who plan to add a fountain and fish to their pond in the spring, are hoping to have their goose back long before that.

It just wouldn't be the same without her.

``She lives by our pond,'' explained 13-year-old Annie Carey.

``She's the special mascot,'' said her classmate Chris Forsythe. ILLUSTRATION: Photos

STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot

The special education class at Great Neck Middle School is looking

for the person who stole a plastic goose from a pond habitat. Paul

Lapke, above at right, Page Powell, behind the goose, and other

students have received letters and photographs from the goose, from

many spots in Virginia Beach, such as the one at right, showing the

goose at the Oceanfront.

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