When Assistant Principal Rebecca Hitchcock returned to school, the last thing she thought she’d find was a rodent invasion. Hitchcock wasn’t alone in the discovery.
Now nine weeks into the school year, the invasion continues.
“I caught two yesterday,” Hitchcock said on the day of this interview.
Assistant principal Peter Braveboy has also found the little critters around the administrative offices.
“We saw that the wires to the telephone were eaten,” Braveboy said of the reception office. “We figured they were little mice, so we set new traps.”
The devices used are sticky traps, where the mice become glued to a piece of plastic. The administrators are also using a liquid bait “that smells like peanut butter,” Hitchcock said.
Hitchcock and Braveboy have taken it upon themselves to capture the mice.
“The custodians have given us sticky traps, but I also caught a few in the counselor’s office. I put cheese in the trap.” Braveboy said.
Mrs. Hitchcock herself laid traps and caught mice, using peanut butter crackers.
Students have also been catching mice. A student in family and consumer science teacher Lola Pepper’s class caught a mouse in a jar. The mouse was delivered to science teacher Mrs. Bollom.
“While some students were trying to catch the mouse, the others were up in their chairs with their feet away from the floor,” Pepper said.
In the room Mrs. Pepper shares with Coach Wallerich, there is a fair-sized hole in the wall that an alleged mouse chewed through. The mouse hasn’t been seen, but it just might be the same mouse that’s said to roam around in Coach Garfield’s office, which is said to be the size of his foot!
There aren’t too many options to rid of the mice in the school, besides the traps being set.
The signs that read ‘No food beyond student center and cafeteria’ aren’t put there just to be mean.
“The main reason why there is no food allowed is because of the mice,” Hitchcock said. “So unless you want to share your classroom with little mice, I wouldn’t bring food into the classrooms.”