Bat Found Outside Grade School Being Tested By State For Rabies

State health officials are testing for rabies a bat that was captured Wednesday morning outside a Spokane Valley elementary school.

A maintenance worker discovered the bat curled up above a side door at Trent Elementary, 3303 N. Pines, said Nancy Sattin, county animal control director.

Spokane County animal control officer Carl Boyd corralled the nine-inch creature about 11 a.m. without incident. It was tucked under an overhang that protects a door leading to the school’s playground.

“I think it was trying to get out of the weather,” Boyd said.

Several students lined up near the door to come in from recess also saw the bat, said Principal Shelley Harding. None of them touched or were harmed by the bat, she said.

“Many of them were asking me what I was going to do with it,” Boyd said.

However, animal control officials were concerned because the bat’s behavior was typical of one that is sick or injured, Sattin said.

So, the bat was sent to the state lab for a rabies test. Results of the test were not available late Thursday.

About one out of 10 bats tested in the state is found to be rabid, said Paul Savage, county environmental health specialist. The odds that anyone came in contact with the bat found Wednesday at the school are remote, he said.

Health officials ordered the rabies test because they could not be certain no one touched it.

“The possibility’s there so we’d like to err on the side of caution,” Savage said.

Sattin advised anyone who sees a bat not to touch it.

“If people see (a bat) they should stay far away,” Sattin said. Children should “get an adult to call animal control.”

, DataTimes