Director of Communications Sue Cathell opened the lid of a cup sitting on her desk. The live mouse she saw looking back at her was far from the water she expected to find inside.

“I screamed, and I never scream,” Cathell recalled about the incident.

“There are mice all over the school,” said librarian Anne Baker. She recalled cleaning up dead mice around the school, even at events like the Senior Variety Show and Senior Project Night.

Numerous staff members and students have found mice throughout the school. While rodents appear throughout the year, their presence at the school peaks in the summer and fall.

“We take all sorts of steps to keep them out,” Facilities Director David Moxey said. The school has hired an exterminator, whom Moxey thinks helps to control the rodent population.

According to Moxey, the main reason for mice in the school is how food is stored and cleaned up.  Moxey said that when students were not allowed to carry food throughout the school, the mouse population was considerably lower.

Baker said that since the library’s “No Crumb Left Behind” policy was implemented last year, the presence of mice in the library has died down. Before the policy, students would sneak food and drinks into the library and leave it there, thus creating a high presence of mice.

Director of Sage Dining Services Jerry Hammer said he has seen rodents in the cafeteria’s kitchen before.

Hammer said the area does receive visits from the exterminator, and he and his staff take precautions to keep mice out of the kitchen.

Other high traffic areas for mice in the school  include the auditorium and the school store.

“We have done everything humanly possible to keep them [the mice] out of here,” school store manager Donna Hetzel said. According to Hetzel, the store had a “big” mouse problem, but it has been taken care of by the school’s exterminator. Hetzel expects the mice to return because of the cold weather.

In addition to the exterminator, who comes monthly, the facilities department sets traps throughout the school. But some, like guidance counselor Larry Hensley, believe the school should take a more compassionate approach to ridding the school of mice. Hensley said the school should capture and release mice, not kill them.

Some students still remain unaware of the presence of mice in the school. “If I saw a mouse in school, I would probably scream and jump on top of a table,” said junior Jeff Hoch.

Collin Hoofnagle can be reached for comment at [email protected].