Reason 413 to Homeschool
Teachers won’t expose your kids to rabid animals. Yeah, even private schools are not immune to stupid teachers who make questionable decisions. A private school in Wyoming kept a rabid bat as a classroom pet. Now some staff is undergoing painful rabies shots.
Mr. Coniglio’s class features a terrarium of rabid bats.
From NBC4 here:
A bat kept as a classroom pet in a Wyoming school has tested positive for rabies. Two staff members at Trinity Lutheran School in Riverton are being treated for possible rabies exposure.
Marty Stensaas is manager of Fremont County Public Health Nursing. He said state and county health officials have interviewed all 95 staff and students at the school. He said a teacher and a teaching assistant are getting preventive rabies treatment.
A school secretary found the bat in the basement of the school last week. Teacher Steve Coniglio captured the bat and kept it in a locked terrarium for two days.
After the bat died, it was sent to the state veterinary lab for rabies testing.
The School’s homepage is here. Maybe next wek’s lesson plan will involve exposure to Hantavirus from rat droppings.
Hey before posting something you may want to get your facts right. The bat was caught in a bucket and died the same day, it was never in the class room. The picture where you say the bats were kept is wrong. No one ever came in contact with the bat. This is a bogus story on your part. I am a former student of Mr. Coniglio’s and this is wrong. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT! He is a good teacher who’s first concern is for his students. A website and an article like this shows what real morons we have in Americas society today.
Teachers won’t expose your kids to rabid animals.
Mr. Coniglio did not expose them to it. No student was allowed to touch/pet it.
Yeah, even private schools are not immune to stupid teachers who make questionable decisions.
And apparently blogs aren’t immune to stupid writers who write about FALSE INFORMATION. Mr. Coniglio is not a stupid teacher. You try learning Latin or Logic from him. Then you tell me just how “stupid” he is. Get a clue before you write uneducated crap like this.
A private school in Wyoming kept a rabid bat as a classroom pet.
I hate to disappoint you, but it was not a pet. Students didn’t feed the bat, name it, pet it, or take it out of the cage. It remained alive for 2 days.
Now some staff is undergoing painful rabies shots.
Oh, and they’re tough teachers. They don’t feel the need to add drama to a simple injection.
Kept as a classroom pet, eh? These people must be clueless…NOT.
You people are idiots. The bat was taken from wandering around the school basement and put into an enclosed terrarium.
Nice picture of the turtle aquarium by the way. Those animals have been alive and disease-free for years. Great job though.
Marty Stensaas might be a little mad when SHE, not HE finds out that you changed yet another detail of the story. You can’t even get a person’s gender right – why should people expect you to get your story straight?
Have a nice day, and maybe next time you’ll get your facts straight before making an idiot of yourself. We all love liars.
I was wrong about when it died but it was never kept as a pet. The tank in the picture held turtles which were in the classroom at the time I had Mr. Coniglio as a teacher and guess what? No Diseases or Rabies. Hmmm…kinda idiotic to guess and be wrong with no information about the situatuion. Nice work Dumb A**
Stacy and Brian,
I only quoted a news article from NBC4. And those shots the teachers have to get? Its not a simple injection. Its a series of several shots and immoglobulin treatments. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies
The decision for an untrained person to capture and keep an animal known to carry deadly diseases was an extremely poor one. The defense that he was an otherwise smart teacher is not the issue. He introduced a risk of exposure to a deadly disease to innocent children. Those are the facts.
Did you know that all of the other bats evacuated from the area most likely did NOT have rabies? Do you know how uncommon this situation is? Do you think he should of just taken it outside and let it go? Please, TELL ME what you would do in the situation. I’m dying to know. Do you think he said to himself, “Hmm, this bat must have rabies. I’m going to expose every student and teacher possible and get the media to write about it for the next week.” I’m guessing not. And of course since NBC4 hit up this story, it has to be correct. Trust the media, always (or a word of advice, DON’T). Working for a newspaper, and being the head teacher’s daughter of Trinity Lutheran School in Riverton, I know what goes on, and what WENT on with this whole story. Mr. Coniglio is not going cry about getting a half dozen shots in the butt over the next month. The immunoglobin treatment – a shot. It builds up the body’s defense against rabies…but still a shot. He’s not hospitalized, kids aren’t dying, and guess what, state officials and public health have taken care of it. The entire school has been interviewed (some people 3+ times to check if they are at high risk). We’re not idiots out here. So please don’t call Mr. Coniglio stupid, Marty HE, or repost/requote/distort anything from the news again until you’ve done your research. My mother would be glad to answer questions for you so you can have a true story–It could be worth something to actually have a story with all the facts straight. You take care now, ok Pat?
Thanks for your time.
So Pat I’m just curious would you have left the bat laying there on the ground for several kids grades pre-school through 8th grade to come along and touch and poke at? Seems like to me he helped to eliminate the chance of exposure and also used the bat as a learning expierience. Like Staci said get the real story from someone who works there not off an un reliable source.
Maybe the school should have called animal control or just killed the bat. But its very common knowledge that the number one carrier of rabies in the country is the bat. To capture it and try to keep it was irresponsible and yes, pretty stupid.
And Staci, if you work for a newspaper like you claim and your mom has such a hot lead on this story, write it up and publish it to the wire services. Don’t come crying to a blogger about your angst.
And I will correct the record here- This teacher was stupid and had his students feeding a rabid animal crickets according to this account of the story here:
http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=456&sid=1143276
And Brian, is your mom the head teacher of the school Susan tucker?
There’s no need for me to write a story. How do you think this whole thing began? Would you like to guess where the story came from in the first place? The Riverton Ranger. The TRUE STORY was written in the Ranger. AP distorted it, bloggers and people with too much time on their hands picked it up, and now the world makes sense again. It’s typical media. You’re not the only one at fault. Also, please don’t try to justify what you did as being right by saying you “only quoted a news article from NBC4.” It was your choice to post it. You’re entitled to your opinion and to express what intrigues you, but it’s only fair that you allow for the other side of the story to be heard, especially if false information is involved.
I just got done ranting about not trusting the media – so why did you send me back another story? I know the facts. Mr. Coniglio works for my mother. You can tell me all about “the record” but I’ll still know the facts from first-hand exposure as to what really happened, and unfortunately, you’ll only have the media to trust. There are so many other cool facts and information that came from this, but since AP won’t write a story on it, the rest of the world will never know any of it.
On a non-sarcastic and angered note – nice site. It seems to have pretty good content. I may not agree with all of it, but regardless, it’s one of very few these days with somewhat decent content and few pop-ups (which is very hard to come by as you already know). I don’t want to argue with you about this anymore, because we’d be beating a dead horse. It comes down to your sources versus mine, and it’s comparing apples to oranges. All I ask is that you be a little more careful with any accusations or content – keep your site something worth reading/looking at.
Thanks again for your time.