Wichita ? The gruesome killings of three ducks that had nested near a school has shaken students and raised alarm about the sixth-grade boy who admitted stabbing the birds with a pencil.

Students at Wilbur Middle School had been monitoring the mother duck and two ducklings, making sure no one disturbed the nest in a grassy creek bed. Their lifeless, mutilated bodies were found this week.

“It’s shocking and upsetting,” said Terry Glover, mother of a seventh-grade girl at the school. “I think the kids are shaken, just not quite understanding how someone – anyone – could do that.”

An announcement over the public address system brought the sixth-grade boy’s admission that he killed the mother duck, whom students had named Lucy, and the two ducklings. School officials said he had talked about the act to classmates and didn’t understand why it was wrong.

The boy was suspended Wednesday. His return to the school will hinge on a hearing.

School officials were responding “the way we do whenever we believe that a child might be a risk to himself or others,” said Liz McGinness, who coordinates the district’s mental health crisis team.

“We really don’t mince words on this,” she said. “We know that animal cruelty is a very serious, significant behavior. We will be following up with the parents to be very clear that they seek outside mental health care for this child.”

Sedgwick County wildlife officers are investigating the incident and no decision has been made on whether the boy will be charged. Mallard ducks are protected by federal and state laws. It is illegal to kill them this time of year, out of season.

Mark Rankin, assistant director of law enforcement for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, said officials may decide not to charge the boy because of his age. An adult could face a $250 fine and up to seven days in jail for killing the bird, in addition to animal cruelty charges, which carry up to $10,000 in fines and up to a year in jail, he said.