![Hosting the SCLA Casptone Mentor Dinner outside allowed for more attendees on September 27, 2021 at Silver Creek. This event would’ve usually been held inside. According to Lauren Kohn, a SCLA 12 teacher, “If we have a higher number of people, as long as we can host the event outside, then that seems to be keeping every[one] safe”.](https://schsnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/sxMAIGbSYGodZkqmrvTi5YWcJ1ssWA08ApkeMLpp-900x675.jpeg)
The faint scurrying of rushed paw steps has begun to fill Silver Creek High School; what once was thought of as an outdoor affair has infiltrated inside the campus’s walls. Whether it be the hungered mice or the school-lunch-fattened squirrels, the Rodentia family has now invaded all aspects of the educational environment.
One student, Lilly Wetzel, recalls a particularly “bizarre” mouse experience.
“I was sitting in class, and a mouse ran over my foot!” Wetzel stated.
This is clearly unacceptable in the learning environment; students should not have to worry about combating an unwelcome rodent while learning Algebra or English. Furthermore, interactions like the above cause classroom uproar.
“It freaked me out,” Wetzel said, “and it disrupted class for long enough, so we didn’t have to do any work.”
Anna Goodbee, a senior at Silver Creek, has her own personal experience. An experience utterly ominous, though not entirely dissimilar to Wetzel’s, that deals with a mouse haunting the A-wing halls.
“I encountered the A-wing mouse,” Goodbee began, “that thing was bigger than a squirrel.”
When pressed further on the mouse-tale, Goodbee said: “I was trying to leave the school, and there was this kid blocking the door, and he said there was a mouse.”
It is clear this “kid” was trying to warn Goodbee, perhaps a noble act protecting her from the various diseases carried by rodents.
“When I saw that thing scurrying, I shrieked, I didn’t know what to do, I ran,” Goodbee said. “It was really traumatic because [the mouse] was actually huge.”
Moreover, Goodbee has strong beliefs regarding the health concerns of rodents inhabiting Rowdy’s nest.
“I believe that having mice that could have rabies in the school is very dangerous, and disruptive to my learning,” she said. Please note, that the likelihood of mice carrying rabies is very rare.
Tennis coach and PE teacher at Silver Creek High School, Sara Whiteley, has this unique perspective: “Last year was really cold, so [the mice] found a place, and it was our tennis shed.”
Though, despite the infestation of the athletic shed under her rule, Whiteley holds no animosity.
“Partially it might have been my fault,” Whiteley said, “there was food left over from the girls’ tennis season…”
Whiteley made certain to emphasize the circumstances in which the mice scurry into shelter; whether it be hunger or coldness, it is never out of spite.
All of these concerns, and personal stories, are extremely valid. Though, mouse-expert (and principal) Erick Finnestead has his own thoughts on the matter.
“There are no rats, period,” he said, continuing to emphasize this is a mouse invasion— not rat. “In the fall, each year, our wayward field mice try to find a warm livable home; and just like throughout Boulder County, it is a tough real estate market.”
However, this still leaves the question of what happens to these intruders. What happens once they fall into unknowing traps?
“Any trap we are authorized to use is a live trap that does not kill the mice, then they are relocated to open space west of the school so they can live their best lives,” E. Finnestead explained.
It is truly a beautiful thing that despite their invasion, the administration has found some form of mercy upon these little critters. And that is something everyone should be afforded, despite their shortcomings, despite their failures. Everyone and everything deserves a little bit of forgiveness, and the ability to pursue their best existence.
