Instead of students and teachers being the only things in the school, this year, there are a few new visitors: mice.

Deliese Nusser, Food and Nutrition Sciences teacher, doesn’t have a problem with the mice.

“The mice we’ve been seeing are adorable,” Nusser said. “They just can’t be in the kitchens. Unsanitary!”

According to a sign posted on the front door of the school, there are pest control treatments scheduled for the first Wednesday of every month.

“The one last year we caught in a sticky trap,” Nusser said. “Never again! Too inhumane. I always want to release them outside, but they can get back in. Sneaky little boogers. One from this year, dubbed Ratatouille, we still can’t find, it probably has brain damage from a student slinging it off his hand after being bitten.”

Unlike Nusser, art teacher Nancy Kizis didn’t have a difficult time catching the mouse.

“He just ran out of my closet one day and over Jim Henson, art teacher’s, feet,” Kizis said. “Jeremy Boren saw him first and screamed like a girl. A few days later, I went into the closet and brushed against some crinkly paper and it scared me and I screamed like a girl.”

Lola Pepper, PFD teacher, was “shocked” when she saw the mouse.

“My 7th period spent about fifteen minutes trying to catch the mouse using two boxes,” Pepper said. “It was a very small mouse, probably a baby. We weren’t able to catch it though.”

Kizis believes the mice have been there “forever,” while Nusser thinks they were put there as a crude joke.

“I heard from a student that Old High students put them there last Rider/Old High week,” Nusser said. “Maybe, maybe not.”

While most of the people in Nusser’s class last semester hurried to catch the mice, not all were as brave.

“Watching the girls jump on chairs and tables made me laugh,” Nusser said. “Even the males were scared of them.