OREM, Utah — It was a quiet Friday at Cherry Hill Elementary School in Orem. The gym was closed, and students were learning from home, all because the school was forced to deal with something they didn't expect.
“We did not have bats on our bingo card in Alpine School District this year," explained Alpine School District spokesperson Rich Stowell.
Yes, just in time for the spooky season, the school is facing a bat infestation.
On Tuesday, students found a dead bat on the playground, alerting school and district leaders that there may be more bats on the premises.
"So our facilities team came and investigated, and they did find some bats," Stowell said. "We don't know how many. There's been reports that there's 20-30 bats in the building, and they did find where they were nesting."
The school first closed its gym and cafeteria on Wednesday and had kids go outside, and had them learning remotely on Thursday and Friday.
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The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources is working with the school to get rid of the bats, which, according to one expert, is not that unusual.
"It's pretty common, especially with certain species that are either migratory and are coming up and utilizing these areas where we have attics, or buildings that have good thermal retention," explained DWR wildlife conservation biologist Shawn Pladas. "Bats really like to use those areas; it mimics sort of their natural cliff-like, cave-like environment."
Because they are protected, bats can't be killed to get rid of them. Crews are trying to guide them out through school doors, and they think most of the bats are now out. Pladas hopes more people understand that bats are an important part of the ecosystem.
"They're all insectivores, and that is a really big benefit to our agriculture industry, to human disease for other reasons, for mosquitoes and stuff like that, because those bats are out there controlling insect populations," he said.
The first bat found did not test positive for rabies, and the school is doing everything it can to keep students and staff safe.
"There's no indication that these are spreading any diseases, but we're taking precautions," Stowell added.
While Monday is a teacher work day, Cherry Hill's goal is to get students back into the classroom by Tuesday, as long as the bat removal continues to goe as planned.
