It amazes me sometimes what people will react to.
On the Friday before Spring Break, a sick bat was found near the PE locker rooms. Animal Control was called, picked it up, made sure that no one had touched it. Just another day at the office. I didn't really think it was a big deal, and here's why: no one had called me when it was found, no one alerted me to the situation after Animal Control was called, and I only found out about it because I stopped the officer as he was leaving the building. He said that they would test it for rabies, since a rabid bat had been found on the other side of the county late last year (by the way, rabies occurs in one tenth of one percent of bats).
Within twenty four hours, the Director of Health Services for the county has been in meeting after meeting about the bat, every news service in the area is running the story (how did I find out the bat tested positive? The L.A. Times), and I've got over twenty direct Google hits about our sick little friend. The district office goes on full alert, and sends out every message it can to all the people NOT connected to our communication infrastucture (does anyone e-mail or call the school's PR guy? Nooooooo. My cell phone, my work phone, my e-mail . . . nothing bat-related).
I've got massive student attendance problems, rampant campus-wide theft, three drug investigations pending, and teachers threatening a work-action and everyone is focusing on a sick chiropteran that nobody touched.
The things we choose to care about.
