Several teachers at Martin Murphy Middle School got the
”
creepy crawlies
”
when their classrooms were suddenly overpopulated with
roaches.
South San Jose – Several teachers at Martin Murphy Middle School got the “creepy crawlies” when their classrooms were suddenly overpopulated with roaches.
“I can take one or two,” said teacher Jan Martin. “But this was way beyond that. They were in the walls, in the ceiling … After they did the spraying, the halls were strewn with dead roaches. I know (the district maintenance worker) counted 140 dead ones in my classroom.”
Morgan Hill Unified School District Assistant Superintendent Bonnie Tognazzini said she and the facilities department were unaware of the situation until Martin and other teachers from the school spoke at a school board meeting. The department has taken steps to fix the problem, she said, but it is difficult.
“They were coming from the sewer drains in the park next to the school,” she said. “We can’t spray down the drains and contaminate, but we have put coverings down.”
Tognazzini said the district has sprayed the school and will continue to monitor the situation, but the staff has to also take precautions, such as not leaving food out in the classrooms.
Martin said the spraying has helped, but she knows of teachers who have had a handful in their classrooms still.
“And one ran over the foot of a boy in one of my classes, he shakes it off his foot, and of course it flies off and onto the back of a girl,” she said. “In one motion, like it was choreographed, five girls went from sitting at their desks to sitting on their desks.”
That kind of a disruption causes a class to lose instructional minutes, Martin said.
“Of course, it took so me time to get everyone settled down again,” she said. “We probably lost 15 minutes.”
The problem is larger than the roaches, she added.
“The attendance clerk has to keep a trash can on the counter when it rains,” she said. “The thing is, these buildings need some work. I have worked in worse conditions, but they can only defer maintenance on these buildings so long before something major will happen.”
