When Jade Dorynek opened her locker to find holes in her lunch bag and droppings in the bottom, she knew that a mouse had taken up residence.
“Everyone was mad, like my entire locker bay,” said Dorynek, 17, a senior at Lake Park West High School in Roselle. “A lot of people have been talking about it.”
School officials cleaned the mess and Dorynek bought a sandwich for lunch. Inspections of the school cafeteria showed no rodent problems, but school officials are keeping an eye out for mice they say have been driven indoors by cold weather and construction at the District 108 high school.
Sightings of the critters have been reported since renovations began in March, but since the mercury dropped, school officials have been working overtime to minimize the commotion at the campus.
As mice have become part of daily conversation among students, administrators have been setting out additional traps and sealing entrance points.
The weekend after students reported that mice had munched on their lunches, administrators had the students clear their lockers so they could clean them and set traps. There haven’t been complaints since.
“We’re just dealing with it. If we hear something, we’re making sure that it’s cleaned up,” said Ann Stacy, assistant principal, who added that the $60 million construction project is slated to end in fall 2005.
“We’ve checked our cafeteria thoroughly … there was no evidence of mice in the food-storage area. It was totally clean,” she said.
With the Chicago Public Schools system scouring its 600 buildings after evidence of mice and rats was found–including droppings in some food areas–west suburban parents are concerned about the unintended effects of the renovation.
After receiving two complaints about mouse sightings, an inspector from the DuPage County Health Department paid the school a visit. The inspector reported that officials were taking proper precautions against the vermin.
The inspector found evidence of rodent activity in student lockers and advised the school to have those teens keep their food elsewhere. Administrators said some students have been instructed to store their lunches in plastic containers in the dean’s office.
“The school was very aware of the problem and they have two professional companies addressing it,” said Sue Kowalczyk, a county inspection supervisor. “They’re doing daily checks [and] daily cleaning.”
About five years ago, a state law was passed requiring schools to adopt integrated pest-management programs that use preventive methods to control rodents with minimal harm to students.
Before the law passed, many schools depended on harmful pesticides to control pest problems, said Rachel Roseberg, executive director of the Safer Pest Control Project in Chicago.
Lake Park district officials said they employ two companies to control the mice and make sure they are using methods best suited for students’ health.
But rodents seeking refuge in schools that are under reconstruction is not unusual. When York Community High School underwent a four-year demolition-and-renovation project, the Elmhurst Unit School District 205 had to step up its pest control.
Birds, mice and squirrels were able get into the building because “during construction, the building is open,” said Val Stewart, spokeswoman for the district. “But it never disrupted classes.”
Generally, controlling rodents is a relatively straightforward process, but large-scale construction can pose additional obstacles, said Mark O’Hara, an owner of Anderson Pest Control, which has exterminated pests for schools in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana.
