Perry high school is continuing to expand each year, and a new addition to the C-building is currently being added. As boring as construction sounds, it has brought about some hysterics and excitement within classrooms that line the back of the building, closest to where the construction is taking place.

Teachers are now not only dealing with non stop construction noise all day long, but bats on top of it all. The Mexican Free Tailed bats made Perry their home for mating season after migrating from Central and South America to breed.

This could prove to become an even larger problem for Perry if they can’t resolve it before the bats begin to mate. It has been all hands on deck for the security staff on campus as they try to catch any and all bats as they appear in classrooms. Principal Serrano and his wife were even putting in overtime on Sunday, as they geared up in gloves and nets to go and wrangle all the bats that they could get their hands on and then releasing them at the Perry football field.

The bats began showing up in classrooms following the closing of the exit they were using to leave. Principal Dan Serrano explained, “What happened was last week or two there’s a little jut out from one of the classrooms that in order to do something they had to peel the roof off, and when they peeled it off, they noticed a colony of bats.” At that point, the bats were still able to freely enter and exit the building at their will.

Security guard Tommy Rice said, “There are always bats in here.” But the issue is that they are no longer able to enter or exit at their own will.

Administration brought in a expert in the field, who then installed a mechanism that allowed the bats to leave, but not enter back in. However, it was after the trap was installed that the real problem began: bats showing up in classrooms. The bats began showing up in classrooms following the closing of the exit they were using to leave.

Serrano explained that the issue began after “the contractor looked and there were no bats, so he sealed it and then as the week progressed there’s been more and more bats, so we don’t know if they all got back in or if they didn’t get out.” The way they have now decided to get out is through the ceiling and into the classrooms, specifically the ones at the back of the building belonging to Bashford, Stinnett, Duering, and Lolo, among others.

“We’ve caught 20 to 25 bats, there could be hundreds of more in the ceiling,” said Rice. The number of bats caught is well over 25 at this point, but no one can say how many still remain in the ceiling.