School's bat infestation concerns parents

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ala. (WALA) - Some unwanted visitors have taken up residence at a Washington County school.  McIntosh High School has a problem on their hands: flying mammals.  An infestation of bats has closed down about half the school including the gymnasium, foyer and a computer lab.

Washington County school officials said they were notified of a strong odor coming from that part of the school about two weeks ago. They said bat droppings were found littering the ground outside.

“I’m concerned about those kids getting sick,” said concerned parent Jerome Hailey. “I don’t want that to happen.  My wife works around there, and I don’t want her getting sick so I want to see it get removed.  Let’s get those bats removed from the roof.”

Hailey has a child that attends McIntosh, and his wife teaches part time. He took these pictures of bat droppings outside the gym and can’t imagine what it looks like inside the building.

“I was thinking we have a real bad problem. Because if you have that much on the side of the building, then no telling how much is on the inside where they’re nesting at,” Hailey said.

Schools Superintendent Tim Savage was not available for an interview, but said they were taking action to get rid of the bats. He said the brown bats, which are native to Alabama, are protected and have to be removed rather than killed. 

He said a pest control company has already begun work to get rid of the bats, but the process could take days or weeks depending on the weather.

We went to McIntosh High School to see what measures were being taken to take care of the problem, but were not allowed to go on campus to get video.While there, we did find out that a lot of the parents didn’t even know about the problem.

“I’m very upset,” exclaimed Derrick Lovick who has a child at the school.  “They should have at least sent some letters home or something notifying the parents that there’s a problem here. That’s pretty bad.”

When we asked another parent if she was aware that half of the school was shut down because of the bats, the reaction was the same.

“No , and I’ve been up in there all day.  I didn’t know it,” she said. “I want to know what can we do to protect our kids more.”

Barney Beebe of Beebe’s Pest Service is removing the bats from the school. The bats are above the ceiling. He said because of where they are, there is very little health risk at this time. 

The bats are known as Little Brown Myotis and are strictly insect eaters.  The method of removal is called an exclusion process where the bats fly out to forage, but aren’t allowed to re-enter.  Beebe is trying to accomplish this by draping large curtains across the bats’ entry point into the school.