North Middle School students exposed to bat

Letters are going home on the last day of school to more than 100 students at North Middle School who may have been exposed to rabies from a bat.

Tom Moore, assistant superintendent for secondary schools in Great Falls, said two students had direct contact to a bat that one of them brought to school Tuesday and are now undergoing treatment because of potential exposure to rabies. Moore reports that one student brought the bat to a science teacher in a plastic bag out of curiosity. The science teacher then put the bat in a box and had the student keep the bat in her classroom the rest of the day, sending it home with the student Tuesday afternoon.

Moore said officials only became aware when a student — not the one who brought the bat — posted a picture of it on social media, prompting the Cascade City-County Health Department to intervene.

The school district is in the process of contacting somewhere between 100 to 150 families, based on the children who may have been exposed to the bat on the school bus and the seventh-grade students who were in the classroom where the bat was being kept. Letters will also be going home from the CCHD on the precautions that parents can take.

Retiring North Middle School Principal Fred Anderson said he was disappointed that he wasn't informed by the teachers that they had the bat until the end of the day. He said he will be seeking disciplinary action against the teachers.

"These were two veteran teachers who should have come down and told us immediately," Anderson said.

Had officials known earlier, the health department could have been contacted, tests could have been conducted on the bat to determine whether it had rabies and the issue could have been resolved quickly, he said.

Beth McKinney said she got a call from the health department Wednesday telling her that her son had been exposed — he touched the bat at the end of the day Tuesday — and would need to go through a round of shots to prevent possible rabies, given that the health department wasn't able to recover the bat and test it.

"Somehow at the end of the day (Tuesday) this kid came up to my son and said, 'Hey, do you want a pet?'" McKinney said.

She is upset right now that she's having pay for her son to get treatment based on what she believes is the school's mistake.

"Somebody is going to take care of this," McKinney said.

According to the timeline Moore has been told, the student rode the bus to school on Tuesday morning with the bat in the plastic bag, "for curiosity's sake." The student took it upstairs to one of the science teachers who wasn't there and reportedly found another science teacher.

Moore said that science teacher, whose name is not being released, put the bat in a box for the student and kept it in her classroom throughout the day.

The Facebook picture posted by one of the students shows a bat sitting in the corner of an open box. "Found this little guy in science, he can't fly and isn't moving much. He is alive, just spooked a little," the post said. Other Facebook users posted comments on the photo, encouraging the student to be safe.

The student responded back, "My science teacher knows a lot about animals, and just so you know, no one touched it or pet it. Lol. My teacher wanted me to say that. Lol."

At the end of the day, Moore said, the teacher gave the bat back to the student in the box to take home and release it. It is apparently at this point McKinney's son came in contact with the bat.

According to McKinney's son's account, the friend opened the box and he touched the bat; it moved and startled him. The way her son told her the story after school Tuesday, she had no idea he was talking about a real animal.

"I thought he was talking about a prank, so I didn't think anything of it," she said. "Come to find out it was a real bat."

On Wednesday, her first call was from the health department, not the school. Her son now has to get somewhere between seven to 10 shots to prevent possible exposure to rabies.

Moore said he was once a science teacher and that sometimes kids want to bring you all sorts of creatures they find. However, science teachers in particular, are aware about the health risks some of these animals possess.

"It is obviously something we need to be aware of," Moore said. "The teacher maybe could have done something differently."

How rabies is transmitted

People are usually infected following a deep bite or scratch by an infected animal, according the World Health Organization's website.

According to WHO: "Transmission can also occur when infectious material — usually saliva — comes into direct contact with human mucosa or fresh skin wounds. Human-to-human transmission by bite is theoretically possible but has never been confirmed."