CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A 15-year-old sophomore at Ardrey Kell High School is getting a series of rabies shots after being scratched by a bat on campus earlier this week.
The school decided to switch students to asynchronous learning on April 19 and 20 while it worked to fix the issue, but it's still planning to return to in-person learning on Friday.
Monday, the school's principal issued a statement saying 20 bats had been found at the school and asked parents to advise students "not to touch the bats."
“Kids in the hallway were saying, 'I just stepped on dead bats,' and teachers were sweeping them up in the hallways,” Sophia Margherio said.
Sophia stopped in the bathroom between her chemistry and art classes on Tuesday morning when something surprising happened.
“I was using the bathroom and looking at my phone," Sophia recalled. "All of a sudden, a bat from the top of the stall flies down and lands on my leg, and I flick it off, and I start screaming.”
Sophia didn’t realize until she got home that the bat had actually scratched her. She was on the phone with the health department which instructed her to see if she had been scratched.
“I looked, and I’m like 'Mom, there’s a scratch on my leg!' and she was like, 'Send me a photo,' and we sent it, and they confirmed it was a bat scratch," Sophia said. "I was freaking out. She told me if I don’t get the vaccine, and I wait until symptoms, I was basically gonna die.”
That same day, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools issued a statement implying no human exposure to the bats had been confirmed, but the statement also said the there were plans to get rid of the rest of the bats.
"It’s mind-blowing that we're talking about this, and that there were bats in the school, and the school was not informed of the risks, and if they were, that they didn’t take the appropriate steps to ensure the safety of their students and staff," Nadia Margherio said.
Sophia said she's frustrated because she feels like this could have been prevented.
“I was like, 'There’s no way that just happened to me'," Sophia Margherio said.
The school reportedly first found bats at the facility in March. The principal even posted photos on social media.
“There was photos going around Snapchat of Ms. Brooks holding two bats in a container, smiling," Sophia said.
Now more than two days after Sophia was scratched, the school and CMS have continued to deny anyone was exposed.
“I am disappointed, to say the least," Nadia Margherio said. "The principal has been notified. I spoke to her personally. She has the report, the photo of the scratch, and so I’m incredibly disappointed this had not been disclosed.”
It was only after WCNC Charlotte repeatedly asked about Sophia’s exposure that CMS finally issued a statement late Thursday afternoon confirming the exposure, saying:
Ardrey Kell High School students will be back on campus on Friday, April 21, 2023, after a two-day school closure for bat eviction. Following numerous measures including bat eradication, mitigation to close potential spaces that bats could enter the school, and extensive cleaning, and it has been determined that students can safely return to face-to-face learning. This decision was made after an assessment of the school, a risk-assessment discussion with the vendor and the Mecklenburg Health Department.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in cooperation with other health and safety agencies worked together to resolve the issue with the following steps:
The vendor managing the bat eviction has been onsite and completed a thorough search of the building and removal of any bats.
As of today, no bats have been discovered inside or around the building. There is NO evidence of a bat colony in the building.
When the bats were first seen and reported in March, remediation was put in place at a large gap that was found in a wall where the bats were suspected of entering the building. This week, additional remediation has been put in various locations to stop any subsequent bat intrusion.
As an added step, over the next two weekends, the entire roofline will be sealed.
Bats that were found in the building were sent to the state lab for rabies testing and the results have been negative.
Bat guano was not detected during the inspection of the school. However, as a precaution, the building is being thoroughly sanitized with green seal certified products approved by the EPA.
Public Health confirmed one human exposure connected to this incident. No further details can be shared.
“I’m so frustrated," Sophia said. "All I was trying to do was go to school and learn, and I get attacked by a bat."
Sophia has already started the series of rabies shots which takes two weeks to complete.
CMPD Animal Care and Control Division confirmed it responded to the school after receiving a call about potential rabies exposure from bats on Monday.
"ACC picked up the bats from the school and followed the rabies testing protocol," CMPD ACC said in a statement. "A total of 21 bats have been sent to the state laboratory, though testing is not required unless a human exposure is confirmed."
According to ACC, 17 of the bats that have been tested have come back negative for rabies.
Mecklenburg County residents who have a bat in the living space of their home should call 311 or 704-336-7600 and place a call for service for Animal Control to assist.
Contact Michelle Boudin at mboudin@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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