A student in a video posted on YouTube.com said he saw a rat beaten to death at the Mount Hebron High School cafeteria two years ago.
“It just came up from under the soda machine and everyone just started jumping up everywhere,” said Tyler Summers in the 10-minute video produced by students last year, but posted on the Internet video sharing site last week.
“That?s still really nasty that there was a rat in our cafeteria.”
Howard school officials repeatedly denied any rats were inside the building this year, but efforts are under way to rid some rats from the courtyard.
“We confirm that in past years there have been rats in the building, and that an assistant principal did kill one in the cafeteria two years ago,” school system spokeswoman Patti Caplan said.
The video also shows cracked walls and floor tiles and a dead rodent.
“I think it?s important for people to understand what students see and experience every day in the school,” said the video?s poster, Bruce Anderson, to The Examiner on Wednesday.
“It?s really affecting students? ability to learn in that environment.”
Anderson, parent of a St. John?s Lane Elementary School third-grader, said the video is a followup to another student video shown to the Howard school board in 2004 and addresses the same issues.
A CBS News report in October 2004 on that video included an interview with former Mount Hebron Principal Veronica Bohn, who said she didn?t even want to be asked about how many rats she had seen caught in traps.
“I don?t know what she was referring to. We weren?t very happy with the report. It just wasn?t very balanced,” Caplan said.
Bohn, who retired but works part-time for the school system as a specialist, could not be reached for comment.
Caplan said two rats were discovered in the building since 2003 when records could last be located. One was caught in a trap in the kitchen in April 2005 and one in the cafeteria in March 2006. When evidence of rats was discovered, traps were set, but no other evidence of rats was found after inspections.
When no evidence of rats is found, the likelihood that rats are in the building is low, said Jay Nixon, president of American Pest Management, which the school system contracts.
“Typically not,” Nixon said. “Rats and mice are known for prolifically leaving droppings.”
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