-- Grab EHS RSS Feed
There is a rodent problem at a southeast Atlanta elementary school.
For months parents told Channel 2 Action New Thomasville Heights Elementary School was infested with rats, and now videos, emails and pictures support their claims.
The school district gave Channel 2's Erica Byfield the documentation after she made an open records request.
Surveillance video from October of this year shows a rodent scurrying through the halls.
Byfield first heard about a possible rat problem from parents.
On Nov. 10, Byfield confirmed the issue after obtaining a letter the school's principal sent to parents.
At the time, one parent told her she saw a rat in the school.
"The rats are so big they look like the size of a rabbits," parent Sherrilyn Cullins said.
An email from August describes why an employee called her supervisor crying uncontrollably.
"A very large field mouse had jumped on top of her when she entered the pantry this morning," the email said.
Another email written in February addresses how big the rodents are.
"They will need a large trap, the visual sight of the rodent is similar to a wood rat," it said.
There are also reports the staff at the school had to throw out food after finding gnaw marks on packages of crackers and pounds of flour and sugar.
The documentation also included pictures.
There are photos of droppings in the kitchen and classrooms, traps officials placed around the school and images of holes in the ceilings and walls. Officials believe the rodents crawled into the building gaps. There was also a photo of a rodent in the copier machine.
An email the school's principal Charles Penn sent to district leaders in October said, "Please be advised that we killed a mouse this morning in a kindergarten classroom and another in my office. Additionally, our conference room copier continued to jam."
The photos also included evidence of changes leaders instructed their staff to make to keep the rats out. There is a picture of a hole in the ceiling someone sealed.
District spokesman Keith Bromery told Byfield as of Nov. 23, the school's staff had not seen any signs of rodents since early November.
Source = cnn.com
George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist
Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA
