A Texas high school has reportedly been dealing with a growing raccoon problem as the animals have been spotted meandering the hallways or falling through the ceiling during class in recent weeks.
MacCallum High School in Austin has faced multiple incidents involving invasive raccoons trespassing into the school buildings, according to local NBC affiliate KXAN.
Morgan Eye, a journalism student at the school, noted to the local outlet that she and her classmate, Noah Braun, have repeatedly reported on the school's raccoon infestation for their school newspaper.
"Six catches and releases all in the span of three days is the most we have ever seen here at school," Eye said.
Braun, a sophomore, noted that reports of raccoons at the school go back decades. He also said a rotting raccoon corpse was recently found in the school's walls.
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"There are articles you can find from the '90s, from the early 2000s – and even the 2010s – talking about this," said Braun, who penned an article in the school paper last month about how three raccoons were apprehended within the span of an hour one day. In one incident, a raccoon reportedly startled students when it fell through a ceiling tile.
The article noted how campus safety monitor Bob Bedard, campus police officer Mike Reilly and Associate Principal Andy Baxa worked together to capture the animals and get them outside.
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Bedard speculated to the school paper that the raccoons they apprehended could have been the grown offspring of a raccoon with a crippled paw who managed to get inside the school during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We understand that having raccoons on school grounds can be worrying for parents, and we take this matter seriously," the Austin Independent School District said in a statement provided to KXAN. "I want to assure you that we are taking steps to address the issue in a humane and effective manner."
"We have contacted our Pest Management Department, a professional wildlife removal specialist, and they have already started working to prevent them from coming into the building with exclusion work, as well as setting humane traps for any others that we may not know about," the statement continued.
"The team will safely remove the raccoons from the school grounds and will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that the problem is fully resolved."
MacCallum High School was among several school facilities in central Texas that were listed for upgrades as part of a school bonds package that passed last year, according to KXAN.
