An incident in an American school involving a wild animal provides a pertinent reminder to all schools of the importance of having an infectious or communicable diseases policy which all staff understand.
The Associated Press reported that eight people in Montana, United States, are receiving rabies shots as a precaution after a middle school student found a bat at home and brought it to science class in a bag.
The sequence of events leading up to the incident were:
Apparently the student then let the bat out in a field.
The local Health Department officials got involved after a student posted a picture of the bat on social media.
According to the media report, the school district is notifying as many as 150 families of students who could have been exposed to the bat while they were on the bus or in the classroom.
The student’s family and a fellow student who touched the bat have apparently received rabies shots as a precaution.
Rabies is transmitted through saliva, most often through bites and scratches, and it can be fatal if it is not treated soon after exposure.
Because bat bites have small puncture wounds, the student’s family may have been bitten while the bat was in the house without them knowing (they were asleep prior to its discovery).
According to the report, the teacher involved did not face disciplinary action.
The assistant superintendent for secondary schools in the area confirmed that she had told the students ‘not to touch the bat and to leave it alone’.
However health officials have advised that the teacher should have taken the bat away so it could have been sent to a lab for rabies testing.
The unexpected presence of a wild animal in a school classroom is not an everyday event. Especially a wild animal that normally flies.
That said, it is important that all staff are aware that it’s not only students who can carry an infectious disease into a classroom.
Staff should know what to do when confronted by a situation involving the potential transmission of a disease.
All schools should have health and safety policies and procedures in place as part of exercising their duty of care towards students. An infectious disease (also known as a communicable or contagious disease) policy is also a valuable part of a school’s health and safety procedures to help prevent and control the transmission of infectious diseases.
The education department of each State and Territory has an infectious diseases policy applicable to government schools and these policies can also provide guidance for non-government schools.
While those policies may not provide information on what to do with wild animals in a classroom, it’s worth using this article as an example in teacher training as an example of an unusual situation where such a policy may apply.
And in particular, living in Australia, you never know what sort of creature a student may bring to school!