ATLANTA,None — An Atlanta elementary school is infested with rats.
On Thursday, an Atlanta Public Schools spokesperson gave Channel 2 Action News a copy of a letter the principal of Thomasville Heights Elementary addressed to parents.
The first line reads, "This letter is to inform you of a persistent issue we have been dealing with involving rodents that have been observed on occasion in and around our school and campus."
The school's principal, Charles Penn, went on to say the district has hired an exterminator to deal with the issue.
In recent weeks, several parents and teachers have contacted Channel 2's Erica Byfield to complain rats at the elementary school.
One parent told her she saw a rat in a classroom while dropping off one of her children.
"Mostly they are in the kindergarten area, but they are all over the school," parent Sherrilyn Cullins said.
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Cullins' said her daughter told her the rodents are large.
"The rats are so big they look like the size of a rabbit," she said.
A teacher told Byfield there are dropping all around the building, there is a foul smell in many of the classrooms and on occasion teachers use yard sticks to bat away rats in the middle of the day.
A district spokesperson said officials believe the rodents are living underneath the foundation of the building.
The letter to parents also said the district hired a private exterminator to address the issue.
"They are also carefully inspecting all areas for any rodent signs every morning in order to identify potential areas for placement of the bated traps."
Cullins' worries the threat of rats running through her children's classrooms is taking away from her children's education.
"You send your children to school to learn, not to jump on a desk and run from a rat," she said.
An exterminator not associated with the cleanup effort told Byfield rats are nocturnal, so he suspects there must be a large infestation if students and staff report seeing them during the day.