Bats leave Dutchtown High School

DUTCHTOWN, La. (AP) - Like uninvited houseguests, the bats at Dutchtown High finally got the hint from their hosts after a prolonged stay at the school in northwestern Ascension Parish and left.

School officials tell The Advocate (https://bit.ly/1g1dwfB ) the Mexican free-tailed bats are gone and, hopefully, won’t be back after changes to the high school gym complex’s gutters.

Officials with the state Department of Health and Hospitals inspected the buildings Friday and gave the all clear.

Johnnie Balfantz, a school system spokesman, the gym passed inspection and reopen Monday.

After a March 27 DHH inspection, the school system voluntarily closed its gym complex - two buildings, linked by an enclosed hallway, that house two gym spaces along with band and choir rooms.

DHH and school officials raised concerns about the small chance a student or teacher could encounter a rabid bat and be bitten. Bat droppings, known as guano, also can pose a health risk to those with low immune systems, DHH officials said.

School officials said they have been dealing with the bats since mid-February.

Chad Lynch, Ascension schools director of planning and construction, and Jeff Parent, school supervisor of maintenance, showed how the bats were slipping into a quarter-inch-wide gap between the outside gym walls and the bottom of the gutters.

“Clicker boxes,” which make sounds to scare the bats away, were set up in early March but proved ineffective, so school employees cut down the gutters at the end of March, Parent said. School workers also cleaned guano droppings below where the bats were roosting.

They then put up metal flashing to cover the area where the gutters had been. In a video taken by the school, the bats could be seen flying toward their old home at night and then flying away when they realized it wasn’t there anymore.

Lynch said school officials waited much of last week to see if the flashing trapped any bats inside the gym buildings.

A few did emerge early last week and they were freed, he said. School officials decided to let a few days of no bat sightings pass before inviting DHH to inspect the gym complex Friday.

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Information from: The Advocate, https://theadvocate.com