Snakes close high school
Siebert Elementary will be closed beginning Monday and remain closed until Nov. 22.
Assistant Superintendent Rebecca Hallmark told KTXS that students in pre-kindergarten through fourth grade need to report to the gym of Eastland's First Baptist Church on Monday. Fifth-graders should go to the Eastland Middle School cafeteria.
Hallmark said that Siebert Elementary is undergoing a complete professional cleaning.
Back in August numerous rattlesnakes were found around the Siebert campus.
Some parents expressed outraged after learning that an 8-year-old boy was bitten Thursday.
Edwin Gutierrez was flown to Cook’s Children Hospital in Fort Worth to be treated for the snake bite. His mother said it was a rattlesnake, but this has not been confirmed.
“We called maintenance down to find the snake. No snake was ever found," said Mary Jones, Siebert principal.
Jones said the school is bringing in TruTech Inc., a company from Fort Worth, to search the school for snakes.
This move is something many parents say is a must before they’ll let their children go back to school.
“I'm not going to let her go to school until we know for sure that the snakes are no longer a problem," Nelda Bryant said. “It's pretty scary knowing that a child got bit, and it's sad and it's scary."
This is not the first time snakes were found at the school. In August, three rattlesnakes were spotted in and around the school.
“I don't understand it. I don't understand, and I will not allow my children to go back unless I see something that says that school has been checked up and down to know that there are no nest or snakes,” Tanya Martinez said.
Martinez has two children that attend Siebert. She told KTXS that her first-grade daughter is scared to go back to school.
“I'm not going to risk my children to go to school and get bit and possibly die. I'm not going to do it. They mean way too much to me."
Source:ktxs