The BHS library has always been a welcoming place for students to spend time, but for rodents?
A rodent, dubbed by some students as “Mickey,” made its way into the library on Wednesday, Aug. 28. The rodent stayed in the library for three days before it was successfully removed.
Librarian Angela Maxwell recounted the event of how Mickey was initially spotted.
“I was working at my desk and a student told me there was a ‘rat’ in the stacks,” Maxwell said. “ I stood up and [told them] ‘There is not a rat in the stacks.’”
Maxwell also said that library assistant Paige Dudley, who was sitting at the same desk, had sent her an email at just that moment to let her know that there indeed was a rodent in the library.
Photos and videos of the rodent such as this one taken by junior Sophia Herron appear to show a mouse, not a rat.
“Mickey” quickly became well known across BHS, but it remains a mystery how he made his way into the school’s library.
While the idea of a rodent running loose around the library might sound scary, most students and staff kept their cool.
Maxwell explained that she was startled by the mouse, not scared.
The high school here had glue traps which were kind of hideous. I had a live cage that mice get caught in, and they can’t get out.
— Building Substitute Bob Holzheimer
Senior Madison Torbert wasn’t scared either.
“It was more funny than scary,” she said.
“He looked like a little person while he was running,” Torbert added.
Mickey’s speed and super-small size made catching and removing him a big challenge.
Building substitute Bob Holzheimer brought in a humane mouse trap to capture and free Mickey. He baited the trap with peanut butter.
“The high school here had glue traps which were kind of hideous,” Holzheimer said. “I had a live cage that mice get caught in, and they can’t get out.”
“The mouse was [eventually] caught and someone took it outside and let it go,” he added. “The mouse was happy and everyone [inside the library] was happy.”
Although birds do find their way into the building on occasion, Principal Paul Chase says that the school is usually rodent-free.
“I am not aware of any other rodents in the school during the past five years,” he wrote in an email.
