Rabies alert at a Charlotte County school

CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. – A rabies scare at a Southwest Florida School.

Students at a Port Charlotte Middle School found a dead bat and brought it to school. Now the health department is performing tests to see if the children were exposed to rabies or other diseases.

Thursday morning, three middle school students picked up a dead baby bat. Students who walk Midway Boulevard to school daily say it’s nothing they’ve ever heard of before.

“Usually you see dead raccoons, squirrels or birds, but never a dead bat,” said student John Reed.

There is no word yet whether the baby bat had rabies or any other diseases. It is being tested at the Tampa State Lab.

Brian Jones with Charlotte County Animal Control says he wouldn’t exactly call the bat finding rare, but they generally don’t deal with bats every day.

Animal control is treating this situation as a possible rabies exposure. The Charlotte County School district won’t find out if the day is infected until tomorrow.

Jones says, “if the bat does test positive we would immediately declare a rabies alert area.”

The rabies alert would be active for 30 days and affect people within a one mile radius of the school. The department of health says they will begin treatment depending on test results.

Animal control asks if anyone sees any bats to give them a call and to not touch them.