Friday morning, I turned on the light in my classroom and crept into it. I felt a little like Indiana Jones. I knew the bat could fly at me from anywhere. I'm sure I would have been quite a site if somebody had been watching me creep slowly into my classroom. I snuck up to the front of the room to where I had left the bat the night before. Nothing. But, that didn't mean I was free and clear. The bat could be anywhere.
The custodian was at school, unlocking doors and emptying trash cans. I stopped her to explain why I had left my door open. She's had a lot of experience with bats in our 1919 school, but she said she was surprised that one had been spotted so early. Usually, they don't come out until summer. She did another check of my classroom to make sure the bat wasn't hiding anywhere. By the time she left, I was pretty confident that my room was bat-less.
We have a faculty meeting every Friday morning at 7:30. I showed up a few minutes early and filled my principal in on the bat situation. Another teacher arrived. She had found a sick bat laying outside the door to the principal's office. (I'm 99.7% sure it had to be the exact same bat.) She had called the science teacher to pick up the bat and take care of it. People, this is why I do not teach science. Our science teachers are continually being brought random animals that students find around campus. Turtles. Rabbits. Frogs. Kittens. And, now, bats. You could not pay me enough to attempt to nurse a sick bat back to health in a box in my classroom. The last I heard, the bat was on its death bed, and they were trying to feed it a slice of apple. I think I'll gladly stick with my numbers. Numbers don't need their cages to be cleaned out. Numbers can't give you rabies. Numbers don't need to be taken home and cared for over extended school breaks.
One of my students drew a picture of the bat to commemorate my experience. I like the looks of her bat a lot more than the bat I found lying on the floor of my classroom!
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| Lilly The Bat |