{"id":867943,"date":"2026-10-02T06:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T06:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/867943\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T06:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T06:18:12","slug":"bats-found-inside-puyallup-elementary-school-health-officials-recommend-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/867943\/","title":{"rendered":"Bats found inside Puyallup elementary school; health officials recommend treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

PUYALLUP, Wash. \u2014 The Puyallup School District is taking steps to address a bat infestation at Edgerton Elementary School after at least eight bats have been found<\/a> in the building in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

So far, the local health department has recommended treatment for a staff member and a student who possibly had contact with the bats.<\/p>\n

As recently as Thursday morning, another dead bat was found inside the school\u2019s mechanical room upstairs. District officials say it looked like it had been there for some time, but they still don\u2019t know how the bats are getting in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really concerned my son\u2019s going to pick one up. That sounds awful,\u201d said Sara Sutherland, whose child goes to school at Edgerton.<\/p>\n

For weeks, Edgerton Elementary has been dealing with a bat problem. At least eight live and dead bats have been found in different parts of the school since Sept. 14, including in the mechanical room, the kindergarten hallway, and the cafeteria\/gym hallway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was kind of disappointed they didn\u2019t let the parents know ahead of time they have bats in their school because bats carry diseases. That just makes me nervous as a parent because what if a kid got bit?\u201d said Ashley Williams, an Edgerton parent.<\/p>\n

So far, only one staff member has come into contact with a bat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recommended PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis) for the staff member who had contact with a bat on Sept. 14. We also recommended PEP for a student out of an abundance of caution after an unconfirmed report that they possibly came into contact with a bat,\u201d a Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department (TPCHD) official told KOMO News.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a bat involved in an exposure is captured, we send it to the state public health lab for rabies testing. We do not test bats that have not reportedly come into contact with a human and have not tested any bats related to the activity at Edgerton Elementary,\u201d health department officials said.<\/p>\n

Public health officials say if you come into contact with a bat, immediately wash any bite or scratch and contact a health care provider to help determine any potential rabies exposure and next steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel a little left in the dark. There isn\u2019t any information about the dangers that our children are being faced with,\u201d said Sutherland.<\/p>\n

Three of the bats have been found in the school\u2019s mechanical room, which may help staff narrow down how they\u2019re getting into the building, district officials shared.<\/p>\n

For now, officials are working with pest control to seal any gaps or openings, and school staff continue to monitor for any more bats.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s still no answer. They don\u2019t know where they\u2019re coming from. They don\u2019t know where they\u2019re roosting or anything. We kind of just have to wait until the officials decide what to do,\u201d said Sutherland.<\/p>\n

Pest control will be at the school this weekend to address the issue.<\/p>\n

According to TPCHD, the last time a bat tested positive for rabies in Pierce County was 2017. The state has seen only two cases of human rabies in the last 75 years.<\/p>\n

Regular updates on the bat situation at Edgerton Elementary will be posted as they become available here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PUYALLUP, Wash. \u2014 The Puyallup School District is taking steps to address a bat infestation at Edgerton Elementary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[97],"class_list":["post-867943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}