The daddy of all over-reactions:

[Squatch]

Raccoon bite causes school to lock down in Swampscott

Link

SWAMPSCOTT - Officials decided to lock down the Clarke School Tuesday after a raccoon bit a school crossing guard minutes before school was released for the day.

<snip>

Cassidy said the school was placed in lockdown until the raccoon was disposed of. He said the animal was located behind a house across from the school and Sgt. Richard McCarriston euthanized the raccoon. (RIP, poor raccoon)

<snip>

"It was at the conclusion of the school day just prior to dismissal," he said. "A raccoon attacked (oh noes!!!) and bit one of our highly valued employees. :eyes: We wish her the best in her recovery." Cassidy said Hapgood was taken to North Shore Medical Center to receive treatment for the animal bite.

-----------

I was bitten by a raccoon once, which promptly resulted in my Dad smacking me upside the head for screwing with it.

[BrklynLib at work]

1. Maybe they thought it was wearing a mask and it was a terra-ist?

:silly:

[DefenseLawyer]

2. Best to make sure it is an isolated incident

and not a widespread uprising of woodland creatures.

[SharonAnn]

41. A rabid raccoon could be really dangerous. Seriously.

[DefenseLawyer]

48. I'm a country boy

Having grown up in rural America I am not really phased by the perils of wildlife. I'm not sure how someone standing in the street gets bitten by a raccoon, with his mongoose-like quickness and ferocity. Like maybe take two steps in any direction to "escape". You are right though, I shouldn't make light of rabid beasts attacking our schools. I apologize.

[renie408]

3. How did you get bitten by a raccoon? They are normally shy and nocturnal.

Which is why when you see them out during the day biting crossing guards, you think to yourself, "Gee, I wonder if that raccoon has rabies? And I wonder if I should dismiss a bunch of kids out directly into the area where a possibly rabid raccoon has already bitten a crossing guard??"

I am thinking that rabies might just be a real problem in a place with a name like "Swampscott".

[Squatch]

7. I was trying to feed it an ice-cream cone.

The little dude got greedy, grabbed my finger, and gave me a good bite. What can I say...10-year olds do dumb things.

[renie408]

14. I live in upstate South Carolina and have never

seen a raccoon out during the day. Never. Not once. Ever. Coyotes...yes. Foxes...yes. Raccoons? Never. (Possums, either.) And god knows there are enough of them around here. I don't think I would consider a brief lockdown unnecessary if somebody got bit by a raccoon right before school let out. But then again you know what they say...location, location, location. A lot probably depends on where you are as to how you react to this story.

[silverweb]

4. I don't think it was an overreaction.

If the raccoon attack the crossing guard, there is the possibility that it was rabid and might attack one of the children. Lockdown until it was caught was a sensible precaution.

If they had not taken precautions and a child was bitten, there would be all kinds of outrage, to say nothing of a possible lawsuit.

[renie408]

6. Ding Ding Ding...we have ourselves a winnah....n/t

[varkam]

13. Exactly.

:hi:

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. Bingo!!

You would be correct.

[Canuckistanian]

43. You're right. Seeing a raccon in the daytime is unusual

If you DO see one in daylight (ie, in the middle of the afternoon), STAY AWAY from it.

That one actually approached a human and bit him is especially unusual and alarming.

Rabies is too serious to fuck with.

[Mountainman]

5. They more than likely were not going to take chances that the animal was rabid and would bite others

[Squatch]

10. MYTH: Three Americans die every year from rabies.

FACT: Four Americans every year die from rabies.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. FACT:

Odds of dying from rabies skyrockets after being bitten by rabid animal.

[renie408]

17. Well, shit, then. Take that chance with my kid. No problem.

Because god knows you wouldn't want somebody on a message board thinking you overreacted.

[Squatch]

19. LOL.

I'm sure you take all necessary precautions to protect your kids from any threat that could possibly happen including clearing his/her route of travel to/from the school for cougars, bears, snakes, wombats, poison dart frogs, orang-pendaks, chupacabras, republicans...

[renie408]

24. Cougars...no. Republicans...maybe.

Listen, you can work this sucker all you want, it just wasn't that bad a decision to hold the kids in school or to take out a possibly rabid animal. You noted that only four people a year DIE of rabies...how many a year get it? And rabies is 100% fatal for animals. No treatment. I have horses, dogs and cats and wouldn't have any qualms killing a suspicious raccoon. Especially if it were out during the day and attacking people.

Of course, we don't own guns, so I would have to catch it and strangle it with my bare hands...but I wouldn't have any qualms. Like I said somewhere else, a lot depends on where you are. Rabies is a real issue in a lot of places. Maybe not where you are. But in a lot of areas of the country, it is something to think about.

[Squatch]

26. FYI...that statistic came from my fourth point of contact.

Actual incidents of rabies in humans in the USA hover around 1 (one) per year

[LanternWaste]

34. Fact: Bears eat beets.

Question: What kind of bear is best?
That's a ridiculous question.
False. Black Bear.
Well that's debatable, there are basically two schools of thought..
Fact: Bears eat beets.
Oh..
Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica!
- The Office

[Maine-ah]

37. rabies is no joke.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies

[Journeyman]

8. I believe ensuring that a rabid animal isn't loose in the neighborhood. . .

is prudent behavior for a school, and holding the children until the animal is dispatched a wise choice, too, both to keep the children from contact with it, and so they don't have to witness the animal destroyed.

You were "screwing" with the raccoon before you were bit. You provoked the animal. The crossing guard was unaware of it before they were bit. And hey, whatta ya know, that's how sick animals behave -- attack with no purpose or provocation.

[Squatch]

9. That's what the crossing guard *says* happened.

You never can be too sure about crossing guards, yano?

[Warpy]

11. Rabies is epidemic in the northeast

and raccoons are one of the most common vectors.

This was a good decision on the school's part, on the cop's part. The raccoon will be autopsied to find out whether or not it was rabid and the crossing guard will probably need the course of rabies shots.

Erring on the side of a cute, fuzzy animal with rabies can be fatal.

[enki23]

15. rabies, as has been noted a few times already, is no fucking joke

.

[yardwork]

16. This sounds like a reasonable response to a possibly rabid animal.

Presumably, the school crossing guard was not "screwing with" the raccoon. When a nocturnal animal like a raccoon runs up to somebody in broad daylight and bites them, there's a good chance that the animal is rabid and will attack and bite other people. It makes sense to me that the school would delay closing for the few minutes it took to locate the animal.

[coriolis]

18. They really need to call out the National Guard

to hunt down all 4-legged critters, and 'euthanize' them. Never know when they'll attack. Better safe than sorry, ya know...like with Saddam.
:eyes:

[Squatch]

22. Well, I s'pose it coulda been worse.

[timtom]

50. God! That was funny!

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. I take it you have never heard of rabies

:eyes:

[Squatch]

23. In 2001, there was ONE...UNO....EINE...reported case of rabies in the USA

So :eyes: right back atcha.

[renie408]

27. Dude, 7000 to 8000 cases of rabies are reported annually in the US

http://www.dhss.mo.gov/Rabies/

[Squatch]

29. In **animals**

let's work on the reading comprehension, m'kay?

"Annually, 7,000 to 8,000 rabid animals are detected in the United States"

How many brazillion animals (excluding humans) live in the United States?

[madinmaryland]

45. How many is a brazillion??

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. Ok so let's have your kid be the one case

I take it that won't bother you.

[Squatch]

30. Terra! Terra! Terra! It *could* happen to you, so you must be afraid.

Nevermind that the probability of it actually happening is 0.00000033%

[proud2BlibKansan]

38. When you send your kid to school you expect us to take care of him

and keep him safe. That is all this school was doing.

We had a lock down the other day because there was a stray dog in the neighborhood. Our school district's policy is to lock down the building when stray animals are in the area. It isn't just our principal or our school, it is a district policy and this same policy exists in every other school district I know of.

In our business, the fact that even one (not ONLY one, but even one) child is at risk causes us to protect all of them. If you don't like that, complain to your school board. They will likely refer you to Homeland Security. (Yes, their memos advise schools on safety procedures these days.)

[jmowreader]

49. According to the Washington State Health Department...

http://www.doh.wa.gov/EHSPHL/factsheet/rabiesfct.htm

it's between one and seven cases of human rabies in the US per year. So it jumps around.

OTOH, the Wikipedia article about rabies mentions 50,000 human cases/year worldwide. The difference is the vector: in the US, most of the rabies comes from bat bites because most of the rabid animals are bats. Outside the US, dogs are the big vector.

[coriolis]

25. 9/11 changed everything.

:eyes:

[proud2BlibKansan]

40. I have a feeling you are trying to be funny?

But that is exactly what happened. We never had lockdowns before 9/11.

[coriolis]

47. I was being deadly serious. Since then people go apeshit over nothing.

But of course that is precisely what the 'terrorists' wanted.

[mainegreen]

31. Doesn't sound like it was a real lock-down.

Not in the sense I was thinking at first, anyways.

We used an alternate door for dismissal and the students were dismissed in an orderly manner.

Shit, I remember one time at dismissal we had to wait half an hour while animal control shooed away a moose that had wandered onto the school ground. I wouldn't exactly have called what we experienced a 'lock-down' though.

[Squatch]

35. Yeah, they used the alternate door only after the officer plugged the raccoon

"Cassidy said the school was placed in lockdown until the raccoon was disposed of."

[uppityperson]

32. Glad they didn't mess around with a possible rabid animal.

Taking rabies seriously is one of the reasons there are so few human cases a yr. Squatch, it you were messing with a raccoon and got bit, you deserved at least a smack upside the head. Why mess with wild animals?

[DU GrovelBot]

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[devilgrrl]

36. It's probably because of Rabies

eom

[T Monk]

39. raccoons hate our freedom too

[Midlodemocrat]

42. I think I had a rabid one in my yard last week.

:scared:

Running down the driveway, into the storm sewer. Running erractically and dragging a leg.

If one of my kids had been bitten, it would not have been pretty.

I think they did the right thing.

[frogmarch]

44. Raccoons also carry plague

At a CO animal shelter where my daughter volunteers, whenever anyone brings in raccoons, including orphaned baby ones, the enclosures they are kept in till they're released to the wild have to be scoured with chlorine bleach after they're gone, and then left vacant for weeks afterwards to prevent the possible spread of disease to humans and other animals. The volunteers wear special protective clothing when working around the raccoons, and when scouring the enclosures.

[alarimer]

46. They had to kill the raccoon to test for rabies. n/t