Kids cover the news: Not everyone at Murch gets to move to UDC

Murch kids are covering for us all week! This article is from the June edition of their student newspaper, The Blue and Gold. We have permission to reproduce it here.

Now that Murch is headed for renovation, its mouse
population faces an uncertain future.

More Mice Attend Murch Classes

by Rachel Kolko and Zoe Morehead

For many years, mice have been nesting in the 86-year-old Murch Elementary building, searching for scraps of food and often interrupting classes. Murch’s rodent population appears to be increasing, and teachers and students have been screaming about it.

“I shriek and lift my feet off the ground,” 4th-grade teacher Sarah Heist said. Sometimes when she sees a mouse while she’s teaching, she tries to hold in her screeches so she doesn’t distract her focused students, she said.

Over in room 100, kindergarten teacher Sarah Seltzer recently experienced an annoying problem: Mice were chewing her paper, books and other school supplies. They were not only disrupting her teaching, but also spreading germs, she said.

Students realize that the mice must live in tunnels they’re been digging around the old school building. In Peter Snyder’s 4th-grade class, one boy tried to capture the intruding rodents with a bucket and then set them free outside.

“I was sitting and reading, and a mouse skittered right past me, and into (the) bucket.” recalled 4th-grader Sabrina Bergeron.

Students have noticed that mice were crawling behind Mr. Snyder’s white board. Their theory is that they must live behind it.

Mice have appeared in other places, too. Fifth-grader Rubi Andreata remembered that when she was younger, students heard screaming in the girls bathroom. She and her friends went in, and three mice jumped at them.

Why do the rodents choose to live at Murch? Students gave these reasons: Murch hasn’t been renovated yet, so the old building materials remain and are easier to dig through. Most students eat their lunches in classrooms, leaving many crumbs lying around for mice to eat.

In addition, Ms. Heist said, “they are not afraid of us.”

And they need not fear an immediate counter-attack, either. “I asked for additional traps and have not gotten a response,” Principal Chris Cebrzynski said in late May.

But he predicted that the two-year construction of a new Murch “will ensure a rodent-free environment.”