As of three weeks ago, sightings of mice have been present at Sandpoint High School. While this has not yet become an epidemic, the janitorial staff is hard at work to prevent any more appearances and remove the mice from the buildings.

Lead Facility Foreperson Rennie Wruck has worked at the high school for two years, this being his first encounter with a mice problem.

Traps and glue pads have been placed where mice have last been spotted, however janitors have had little luck with accomplishing their goals to remove the mice.

“They’ve been eating the peanut butter out of the snap traps, they’ve really gotten smart,” Wruck said.

The mice have not only been seen by faculty.

On February 15 a mouse was caught and killed by Freshman Jordan Knapton. Band teacher Aaron Gordon witnessed this event.

“[Jordan] was walking through the lunch room and he and his brother saw a little mouse. They trapped the mouse in the corner and grabbed it by the tail and the mouse turned around and bit Jordan and he dropped it,” Gordon said. “The mouse started to run away and Jordan stepped on it and threw it away in the garbage.”

The mice are attracted to the warmth found in SHS because of the cold winter. They will continue to call the high school home as long as they can find food.

Substitute Nancy Miller had similar experience when she encountered a mouse during Battle for the Paddle.

“I saw a mouse run into a little hole in the back of the gym by the water fountain,” Miller said.

Wruck advises students and staff to remove leftover food from lockers and desks, and to never leave food overnight, as not even plastic bags will stop the mice.

The simple solution is to carry all food and throw it away once finished, instead of leaving leftovers for the mice to forage for.

An absence of food will force the mice to search for a new home, leaving the halls of SHS mice and worry free.