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Students Flee Falling Maggots in Classroom

FAIRFIELD -- David Day, 17, experienced the "grossest experience" of his life earlier this month when maggots sprinkled on his American literature class at Fairfield High School.

Pigeons were to blame for the larvae spillage. The birds roosted in a crawl space under the pitched roof of the portable building the literature class uses. Some pigeons died there and flies laid eggs in their corpses, said Bill Luna, director of administrative services.

Somehow the grubs fell through the ceiling tiles onto students below.

Day heard a little "boop" besides his desk and looked at the floor to see a wriggling maggot about an inch long.

"Then one fell on a student on the back of his sweatshirt," the senior said. "And one fell on his book."

About six or seven maggots rained on the class, sending them scooting to one side of the room. Shortly afterward the students exited the building and waited on the benches outside, Day said.

Maintenance soon condemned the portable building and Fairfield-Suisun School District employees will tear down the classroom during the Christmas break, said Rob Pierce, director of facilities and construction. Demolition won't require a contractor and will cost a couple thousand dollars, he said.

The district won't replace the building and it isn't worth salvaging, Pierce said.

"Too many critters," he said. "We would also have to rip off the entire roof and see what's in there. Frankly, that building isn't worth the trouble."

The building was about 35 to 40 years old and has been at Fairfield High for years, he said. Pierce doesn't know if other, similar portables exist - and have similar problems.

"If there were, we're not aware of any," Pierce said. "As soon as we hear about things like that we take care of it."

The American literature students moved to a classroom that wasn't being used, Principal Vic Ramos said. The portable buildings accommodated an overflow of students when they numbered about 3,000 and Rodriguez High School wasn't built yet, Ramos said. Now student population is 2,400, he said.

Pigeons have long been congregating on the portable building, Day said.

"We don't see them we hear them cooing and rustling around," he said. "One time one fell through the roof. It had a broken wing or something and couldn't fly so it was running around squawking."




— Audrey Wong
Students flee falling maggots in classroom
Daily Republic
2003-11-26
http://www.dailyrepublic.com/articles/2003/11/26/news/news3.txt

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