Rat Infestation Closes High School

A California high school is delaying the start of its school year because of a severe rat infestation, Newsweek reports.

About 2,600 students at Schurr High School in Montebello, California, were scheduled to resume in-person classes on Monday, after taking remote classes for over a year. But when teachers arrived on campus to prepare their classrooms, they found dead rats on the floors and desks covered in rodent feces. One teacher reported hearing rats running around in the building’s walls and ceilings.

In addition to the rat infestation, teachers said the facility’s air conditioning system was not properly working, a problem in a school where many of the classrooms don’t have windows to open for fresh air, The Los Angeles Times reports. COVID-19 safety measures recommend improved air ventilation systems in schools and other public buildings.

Montebello School District Interim Superintendent Mark Skvarn admitted the school’s maintenance staff did not adequately prepare the building for reopening and offered no excuses for their inaction.

“I’m not going to make excuses that this stuff was done as well as it could have been done,” he said.

The school had had a severe rodent problem for years. A teacher confirmed that before the school closed for the coronavirus pandemic, rats would commonly fall out of tile ceilings and scurry to the next classroom in the middle of the school day.

Learn how one school campus gained control over rodents and other pests.

Then watch the latest episode of Straight Talk! below for advice from Brad Sparks, owner of Elite Pest and Termite Control, on keeping rodents out of buildings and eliminating those that manage to make it inside.