As a science teacher at Truesdell Middle School, Addie Foulk has plenty of experience handling critters.
In her classroom are two turtles, a ball python, clownfish, damselfish, leopard geckos and a colony of hissing cockroaches.
What she didn’t expect, she said, is that she would be handling wild bats — as often as once a week, by her estimate.
“I've seen (teachers use) milk crates” to trap the animals, she said. “I've seen posters. I've seen trash bags. I've seen teachers using boxes as shields to kind of direct [bats] out the building.”
“It kind of takes a team effort of three or four staff waving the bat this way, opening the door, and hoping it goes outside.”
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) recently warned Kansans of handling bats and other wildlife, due to a reported uptick in the number of people seeking treatment after exposure to animals that can carry rabies.
Wichita Public Schools employs pest control workers, but Foulk said the immediacy of the situation often means having to step in before pest control arrives.
“[Students] want to pet it,” she said. “They want to touch it. They want to see it.”
“So some of the staff have taken (it) upon themselves to catch them and release them outside, away from the students.”
Health risks in context
Animals with rabies can primarily spread the disease to humans through bites or scratches, but also through some bodily fluids like saliva — especially if it comes in contact with an open wound or a person’s eyes, nose or mouth.
Drew Ricketts, a wildlife expert at Kansas State University, said bats don’t typically attack humans. But their claws and mouths are so small that it can be hard to detect a bite or scratch.
“When we discuss the risks of rabies exposure mostly being from grounded bats, it's because that's when people are most likely to actually have an interaction with those bats,” he said.
When a Wichita student or teacher encounters a bat, the district said it asks them to leave the critter alone and contact the facilities division.
“Typically, the bats are in places in the buildings away from students and staff, but on occasion they get into the main parts of the school,” a district spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Ricketts said it’s important to understand the context around the recent rabies warnings.
So far in 2026, there have been no reported human cases of rabies in Kansas.
And among the more than 1,200 animals the state has tested for rabies so far this year, only about 1% have tested positive. That includes a cat, a cow, a dog, three bats and six skunks.
“This is kind of a normal time of the year when we would start to see some animals coming back positive, and that's mostly because we've had time for exposures to occur both to wildlife and to pets,” Ricketts said.
Rabies is nearly always fatal if clinical symptoms appear, but that’s exceedingly rare in the U.S. due to the availability of treatment called post-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP.
The CDC says fewer than 10 people in the U.S. die from the disease each year. In 2024, a California art teacher died from rabies after encountering a bat in her classroom.
Separate from rabies, however, Ricketts said long-term exposure to areas with large amounts of bat feces, called guano, can present health risks.
“There’s a fungus called Histoplasma that likes to grow on the guano, and we need to remove that guano so we’re not exposing people to those fungal spores,” he said.
Those spores can cause histoplasmosis, a lung infection that Ricketts said can turn into a systemic infection, especially in people with compromised immune systems.
How are bats getting in?
In August, the Wichita Board of Education approved contracts for bat remediation at College Hill Elementary School, Curtis Middle School and Truesdell.
But at Truesdell, Foulk says the building remains infested.
“My concern is they can keep spending money and sending out people to try to fix a problem, but I don't think they see the entire scope,” she said. “I don't know what the inspections look like, but the fact that we're seeing bats on a weekly basis — clearly, it's not enough.”
Foulk and other staff members say they believe bats enter through vent shafts, stacks and other small openings in Truesdell’s exterior, which is cracking in spots due to the building’s shifting foundation.
“Bats are common in older buildings, not just schools,” the Wichita district said. “They can get into very small openings around rooflines or other gaps.”
“Often, colonies will return to the same spot to roost even after being removed, so it can be a challenge.”
That’s consistent with the facts about bats. Most bats that roost in buildings can fit through a round hole the size of a dime, Ricketts said.
“If it’s flat, then it could be as small as a quarter-inch tall by an inch wide.”
Ricketts said this is the time of year that bats frequently enter homes and other buildings.
“The bats have produced their offspring,” Ricketts said. “And now those young can fly, so they may be exploring … They may also be dispersing and going off to try and find their own roosts.”
People can install “bat excluders” on buildings, which allow bats to leave but not re-enter.
When the district finds that bats are entering or nesting in a school, it often uses those devices and patches small openings in the building’s exterior.
What to do if you see a bat
KDHE offers a guide on what a person should do after a bat encounter.
If a person or pet was bitten, scratched or had direct skin contact with a bat, then the bat needs to be safely captured (ideally, by an expert) and tested for rabies.
If the bat cannot be captured, rabies exposure is assumed and treatment is needed to prevent infection.
If there was no direct contact with the bat, it can be released outside and rabies treatment is not necessary.
If a bat encounters a person who cannot reliably communicate whether they had direct contact with the animal, such as a young child or person with intellectual disabilities, the bat should always be tested for rabies.
KDHE recommends people contact local animal control or private pest control companies for help capturing a bat. A person should never touch a bat with their bare hands.
Truesdell embracing the struggle
Truesdell students and staff are facing the bat trouble the best way they know how: with a good sense of humor.
The bat has become an unofficial mascot at the school in south Wichita.
In the front office are a bat plush and other bat decorations. Foulk has bat decorations in her classroom, too.
Foulk said that reflects something about the character of Truesdell staff and students.
“We're a tight-knit community,” she said. “We have each other’s backs. I truly think that these staff and students deserve better.”
Truesdell, which is the most-attended middle school in Wichita, has a number of other issues.
Ramps in the hallways are too steep and do not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the larger gym has no air conditioning, some classrooms deal with leaky roofs and the school’s original boiler from the 1950s is aging and increasingly difficult to fix.
“Our students deserve to sit in a room that's comfortable so they can learn, and they deserve to walk through halls where they don't have to worry about pests,” Foulk said.
The school would get a new, $104 million building under the Wichita school district’s proposed $615 million bond issue. Voters will decide whether to approve the bond issue in November.
