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Mom brings rabid bat to school
Filed under: Big Kids, Tweens, Health & Safety: Babies, Weird But True, Day Care & Education
Show and tell at school is great. Kids love it because it is a chance for them to bring something personal from home and show it off to all their classmates. Choosing just what to bring for show and tell can be difficult, but favorite toys and vacation souvenirs are always good ideas. But if you are looking for bad ideas of what to bring for show and tell, look no further than this mom in Stevensville, Montana. She brought a dead bat to her kid's elementary school. And if that wasn't bad enough, that bat was dead because it had rabies.
Now, I don't know if it was really show and tell day for her two kids at Stevensville Elementary, but she did more than show and tell about it anyway. She allowed the students in one kindergarten class and four fifth grade classes to actually handle the dead creature.
According to Superintendent Kent Kultgen, her bad idea was well thought out. She presented the bat along with "good information" and even brought hand sanitizer for the kids to use after touching it. Maybe she thought this would be a really cool Halloween-related presentation, but clearly it was not. Although the risk of contracting rabies from touching the bat is fairly small, the school is taking no chances. About 90 kids are now receiving rabies shots just in case they came in contact with the bat's saliva.
Those shots could end up costing over $70,000, which will be paid for by the school's liability insurance. As bad as that is, the worst pain will be felt by the students themselves. Over the next few weeks, they will undergo a series of six shots to ensure that they are not infected with a potentially fatal neurological virus. Way to go, mom.
| Nothing -- she's probably embarrassed enough. | |
|---|---|
| She should pay for the kids' shots, of course. | |
| Someone should SUE HER!!! |
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ReaderComments (Page 5 of 8)
10-08-2008 @ 4:32PM
Holmsie said...Kristi,
I believe the term you're looking for is "Prima Donna". And since there are numerous nasty and/or fatal diseases people can catch from dead animals, it isn't just the "eww, gross" factor that should keep children from handling them before they have been appropriately tested.
10-08-2008 @ 11:08PM
lisa said...Dead animals used in science classes aren't diseased and they are preserved with chemicals. They aren't rotting carcasses off the street. There's a difference.
10-07-2008 @ 12:10PM
Kim said...This is in response to Jessica who posted at 11:19 a.m. on 10-7-08. I'm certain that the bat still had its head and had not yet been tested for rabies when it was shown to the children. You can see from the photograph that it still had its head. Surely someone realized the need for testing after the bat had already been shown to the children, then had the bat tested. The results then obviously came up positive, thus prompting the decision to have the children undergo the injections to prevent them from contracting rabies in the unlikely event that any of them had been exposed to the dead bat's saliva. I am certain that if the Mom had known that the bat actually did have rabies or if she even suspected that the bat might have rabies she would never have taken it to the school and shown it to the children.
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10-07-2008 @ 1:01PM
robie said...NO teacher supervision?
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10-07-2008 @ 12:09PM
jodie said...Can't blame just the mother....the school also must have thought it was a good idea....if 90 students handled this creature, more than one teacher had to think this was ok also.....
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10-07-2008 @ 12:15PM
CB said...Brad...Why are you on every blog known to man, hawking your "Scandal! See (insert name-o-the-day here) naked?" crap? Get a life, you stump-whacking weirdo.
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10-07-2008 @ 12:26PM
Kim said...This is in response to Joel who posted at 11:14 a.m. on 10-07-08. The bat was already dead when it was brought to school. It was then tested for rabies after it had already been shown to the school children and found to be positive for rabies.
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10-07-2008 @ 3:43PM
Pamela said...She should be charged with child endangerment. How could you do that? It was dead to begin with, why bring it?
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10-07-2008 @ 12:33PM
shirley said...OH YES...THERE ARE ALWAYS PEOPLE READY TO SUE.....SUE HAPPY PEOPLE....
THE POOR WOMAN WAS PROBABLY THINKING SHE WAS DOING EVERYONE A FAVOUR. YOU KNOW..LETTING CHILDREN KNOW ABOUT ANIMALS AND DESEASES.
I GUESS THE SUE HAPPY PEOPLE MAKE A LIVING FROM THEIR OCCUPATION OF SUING. SHAME ON YOU
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10-07-2008 @ 12:32PM
Pat said...Its my understanding that there has never been a documented case of a squirrel with rabbies
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10-07-2008 @ 12:34PM
Dee said...Where was the Teacher????????? She should have stopped this!!
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10-07-2008 @ 12:32PM
Hollygo said...Oh yes you can. That animal was just as dangerous dead as alive. Let us just educate anyone who seems ignorant about this disease; rabies, unless the shots are begun IMMEDIATELY after infection, is 100% deadly, dead animals CAN spread it and nobody with a brain in their head would take a DEAD animal to a school, especially one they knew had been infected with rabies. She is a complete fool, and so is anyone who really thinks that handling a dead rabid animal is not dangerous. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
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10-09-2008 @ 1:10AM
MSUSpartans04 said...I, along with many other posters, have just one question: Where was the teacher?!
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10-07-2008 @ 12:55PM
Angiebaby said...This mom tried to do something interesting and educational for the kids, and it definitely went wrong. I hate that it turned out this way because all we usually hear about are the parents who aren't involved and don't care about their children's education, or we hear things like story of those two broads who went toe-to-toe in fisticuffs at lunchtime yesterday... and they were mothers of children eating in the cafeteria of an elementary school!
The school should pay for the $70k worth of shots, just to prove it acted responsibly and in the best interest of the children, and hopefully this will prevent any unmerited personal injury suits against the school system. The mother is probably hiding in embarrassment, and I'll bet not a one of these kids will EVER play with a dead animal they find again. And to those of you who think, "My child would never...." A little boy finding an interesting dead animal feels like I would if I found a 3-carat, loose diamond!
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10-07-2008 @ 12:56PM
Ted said...They are all bats - the teacher and the mother!! Wearing gloves of any kind will not protect you from disease transmission unless you know how to remove the gloves properly, the trick is to remove them without the external suface touching the skin - get an EMT/nurse/doctor to show you how they do it. How would they dispose of the gloves? They are hazardous waste after "bat contact." Any one of those kids who had "bat contact" could transmit the rabies to another one and you know what children are like for general hygiene and putting things, like their hands, in their mouth. Keep the bats in the belfry and out of the classroom!
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10-07-2008 @ 12:58PM
Christel said...That was a dumb move on the womans part, but the teacher also should have consulted the principal before hand to make sure it was an ok thing to do. On responding to what Jessica said about testing the animal and having to do tests on the brain matter, well you know what I respect little creatures, but when I comes to choosing between my children and a fuzzy little creature I would knock little mr. fuzzy's head off myself just to test its brains if it came between the two choices. When showing wild animals to kids ne way you should have a trained specialist do that.
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10-07-2008 @ 12:58PM
TQ said...Just to add something for those jumping on the teachers or saying that it is completely their fault. Have you ever heard of parents who go and scream at their child's teacher for an hour or more because their kid got a D because he wouldn't do his homework? They will get furious at the teacher and demand the grade to be changed or think that the teacher is wrong because Little Johnny is such a "perfect angel". Keeping that in mind, it is possible that the teachers did not want the bat to be there, but the mom made such a fuss that they caved and let you do it so she would stop being a pain or so she would not go to the school board. There are tons of parents who do this and when their kids turn out rotten they still want to blame the teachers!
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10-07-2008 @ 2:23PM
Marsha said...The teacher should have been mature enough to endure a little brow beating, or called in a supervisor to back her up.
10-07-2008 @ 1:00PM
Susan said...I had to get Rabies shots just last year and I had to go 6-7separate times. Each time was further out than the last ie: 1st day, then 3 days later, then 7 days later, etc etc. And that was just last year, when did they come out with a 2 dose shot? I come in contact with a lot of wild animals (my job) so I'm very interested. I do know you can be vaccinated for Rabies prior to contracting the virus and this is just 1 shot per year plus booster the first time like a horse vaccine but if you have not been previously vaccinated you have to go throught the whole series, I thought.
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10-08-2008 @ 10:55AM
Doug said...I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned the astonishing estimated price of almost $800 per student for a course of anti-rabies shots - shots that many seem to think are unnecessary. This falls under "health care" in our country's budget. No wonder we spend more and often get less than most other developed nations.
I'm not a health expert but I don't think petting a dead bat, even if it had died of rabies (which seems doubtful, despite the article's wording) is rightfully worth the worried over-reaction. Such reaction fuels our irrational fear of death in this country.
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