Marion County school dealing with bat problem

BELLEVIEW, Fla. (FOX 35 ORLANDO) - The Marion County School Board just approved $18,000 to help combat a problem with bats at one of its high schools.

Marion County Public Schools Public Relations Director Kevin Christian tells FOX 35 that the bat problem at Belleview High School has been going on for years. He said it’s only gotten worse recently because of mating season.

The district has now spent about $51,000 on the bats. This includes the money it just approved.

“It was crazy,” Robert Vazquez, whose son go to the school, said. “I mean, they were all over the place. I was definitely worried about my son getting bitten or contracting some sort of a sickness. But, they took care of them in a timely manner and hopefully they stay gone.”

Many of the bats have flown elsewhere. The school put up nets and filled in cracks and crevasses around the school to keep them from getting into the buildings.

The school says the bats never got into any classrooms, but did get inside the walls, where they left their waste.

“They were nesting in between the walls, so you couldn’t see them, you could only smell them,” Christian said.

The district hired a company to get rid of the smell, but it did cause the school to relocate some of its students and faculty for a few days.

“We’re trying to control them,” Christian said. “You can’t touch them. They’re protected. So, we’re having to do this in stages and having to do it delicately, as well.”

The school district plans to use some of that money to build bat houses on another part of the campus, away from the school, so the bats will hopefully go there and not into the buildings.