Forget Gotham City, as students at Chapmanville Regional High School in West Virginia, the bats weren’t in the comics, but instead they were in the classrooms. Administrators were forced to close the building through the weekend after repeated bat sightings left teachers and students rattled and officials scrambling for a solution.
A High School Turned Bat Cave
The first winged visitors appeared earlier this week, startling students in the middle of lessons. By the following day, more bats were spotted swooping through hallways and clinging to classroom ceilings. ‘They were flying right over the kids’ heads,’ one substitute teacher recalled. ‘It was clear this wasn’t a one-time problem.’
School leaders quickly made the call to close Chapmanville High on Friday and keep it shuttered through the weekend. Pest control teams were dispatched to fumigate and seal off the building, with custodians working around the clock to locate the bats’ entry points.
Parents and Students on Edge
For parents, the disruption added to worries about health and safety. While the Logan County School District emphasized that the risk of rabies was low, families said the thought of bats circling overhead was enough to cause alarm.
‘You send your kids to school expecting math and science,’ one parent said. “Not bats flying over their desks.’
Students, meanwhile, took the closure in stride, sharing memes about Batman and joking that the creatures should be the new school mascot. Still, others admitted the ordeal left them uneasy. ‘At first we thought it was funny,’ a junior said. ‘But when they kept showing up, it got creepy fast.’
District officials stressed that the closure is temporary, and crews are working to ensure the building is safe before students return. Logan County Schools issued a statement calling the situation “a big thing” and promised to keep the community updated.
For now, Chapmanville High sits empty, its classrooms off-limits until every last bat is gone. What was once just another school week in West Virginia has become an interesting turn of events that gives students a break while the problem is addressed correctly.
