Peril with pests BY MATEO MANGOLINI Staff Reporter As Sequoia High School returns to its regular rhythm of in person learning, the school’s administration continues its endless fight against rats, mice, and other vermin on school grounds. But despite the presence of pests, the administration continues to come up with novel strategies to combat them. It’s no secret that rats, mice, and other small pests have been in close proximity to those on school grounds. In fact, Sequoia has experienced an issue with pests for decades. “Ever since I’ve been here I’ve seen a
problem with rats,” said Cherry Stephens, Sequoia’s plant manager with a tenure of 20 years, and an additional 10 years in other positions at Sequoia. “I think we’ve got a pretty good hold of it now though”. Though the school appears to be past the worst of its war on rodents, when a rat went as far as to create a “nest inside [the] desk” of International Baccalaureate (IB) History teacher Teresa Yeager, staff members found that isolated incidents with them continue to occur. Junior Sarah Hansen reported that she and other students who were in physical contact with the lower floor of gym three observed fleas and flea bites on their bodies and bed
sheets for some months, quite possibly originating from rodents. “We weren’t talking about it at first, but pretty soon we all kind of realized that we all have them, and so everyone changed their [bed] sheets and they mostly went away,” Hansen said. The disappearance of fleas is also due in part to a fumigation effort by Sequoia’s administration, who worked in conjunction with the extermination company Clark Pest Control. Since then, fleas have only made occasional appearances in gym three. Across the state of California, schools have been shut down after rodents and fleas descended upon them, such as the case of
Room 250, where a rat was found decomposing within its walls a month ago. Photo by Mateo Mangolini
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