Dodge Batkins darted through the hallways too terrified to look back. Just behind him was nearly every assistant principal hot on his trail. He weaved through swarms of students, dragging pursuers in laps around the school. Yet for every AP lost, another appeared around the corner. 

Fifteen minutes of high speed chase later, Dodge gave out, flopping onto the 2200 Hall Stairwell. Watching the APs approach, Dodge wondered where he was and what these people even wanted.

Dodge is just a bat after all.

In the end, Assistant Principals Christopher McCurry and Nicholas Moore – who named the bat Dodge – cornered him in the freshman rotunda, directing him out the stairwell door during fifth period Sept. 23.

“Needless to say, there was a lot of walking that day,” Moore  said. “I really wanted that bat to just stop moving. Ultimately, my goal was to keep everyone safe.”

Moore believes Dodge found his way into the roof just above the small cafeteria while looking for a spot to roost the night of Sept. 22 –  potentially awakened by lunchtime chatter the next day woke him. Shuffling for the exit, Dodge found an entrance to the cafeteria.

By the time McCurry noticed, students were already screaming and running in different directions. While only a small percentage, bats can carry rabies in their saliva – rabies is nearly 100% fatal in humans. McCurry however, thinks students were more likely to hurt themselves.

“I didn’t want anything to happen to the students,” McCurry said. “But really I worried about accidents happening from people running away. Maybe a little bite or something, it wouldn’t be nice, not much worse than someone falling and twisting an ankle y’know?”

The bright lights, loud chatting and smooth walls reverberating his echolocation must have been disorienting because Dodge fled in different directions.

“Poor bat he was probably scared,” freshman Dylan Phelps who was on scene said. “There were all these people shouting and screaming at him. Some were laughing at him. One kid got on top of the table trying to grab it. It was very hectic.”

Student screams prompted Moore to radio a campus hold. School protocol requires APs to place a hold until the bat is confined in a closed, dark room and district pest control arrives on campus. That day, bat protocol was a half-mile run.

“He did not cooperate and flew all over the place,” Moore said. “And, my goodness, I was the one who had to keep my eye on it as we waited for pest control. There was no way to keep people away from it.”

According to Moore, Dodge got as close as 3 feet from student heads.

Posey said if he was in Dodge’s shoes, he’d also do anything to get out of that room, even at the cost of a student haircut or two. To Moore’s relief though, Dodge never made contact with anyone.

Dodge found his way out of the cafeteria, flew into the rotunda, then to the 4400 hallway and doubled back to the 3400 hallway where APs lost sight.

AP Economics teacher John Kazmierczak caught a glimpse in the rotunda walking to his classroom in the 3400 hallway. Kazmierczak warned teachers of the bat on his way, but unknown to him, Dodge was there to warn them himself.

“When I got to (government teacher Joseph) Collatos’s room, the bat flew past me, and the kids went ‘Whoa!’” Kazmierczak said. “I jumped into his room and there was this big commotion as we were just watching this bat fly past the window. I was a little nervous, I didn’t want to get bit by a bat.”

In the chaos, all but two APs stationed around campus actively tracked Dodge’s location as Moore and McCurry chased him down.

“It was like the biggest game of telephone trying to keep up with it,” Moore said. “All of us were on the radio saying ‘It’s here now; oh, now it’s here.’ One AP even walked past him as he blended in with the ledge of the rotunda.”

Lapping the school twice exhausted everyone plus Dodge. With a couple dozen feet ahead, Dodge flopped onto the freshman rotunda stairwell where McCurry and Moore cornered him.

“I was standing by the door when Moore shouted, ‘He’s coming,’” McCurry said. “Sure enough he flew right out. It was a relief it got out without being hurt and we could get back to business. Really a win-win for everybody, other than we lost some school time.”

Swoop There He Is

Bats will roost in urban infrastructure during the day, especially locations with warm shelter, insects and a nearby water source.

Dodge is the fourth bat in three years to enter, but the first to run rampant through the building. The others stayed in the gymnasium.

According to head boys basketball coach Mark Kovach, bats in gyms are a norm for rural schools.

“I’ve dealt with this before as a player (at Texas Lutherans University),” Kovach said. “We had bats fly in our practice and our coaches wouldn’t evacuate us. We would just play through and dodge the bats, so, having been brought up in that, I’m not scared of a bat.”

Just last year another bat – Kovach named Dr. Acula – swooped in a five-on-five basketball scrimmage.

“It was honestly a little messed up looking back, but the boys started throwing balls at it,” junior Mark Fullen said. “I was low-key mad, because it was a fun practice too. Everyone had to evacuate the gym until they got it out later, obviously. It was a fun day either way though.”

Kovach turned out the gym lights while monitoring for pest control, noting the dark, quiet environment calmed Dr. Acula.

Moore said the school requires infrastructure updates to keep pests out such as vent grates and hole repairs, but added it is out of his control. Moore is yet to schedule a meeting regarding pest issues and said the school will “address it when we can.”

“It’s quite easy for them to actually get in,” Moore said. “It doesn’t take very much, they can literally fit into the size of about a half dollar probably. Not knowing where he actually came in is the trickiest part.”

While Moore looks to prevent situations like Dodge’s, he’s proud of the campus response.

“Overall I appreciate their compliance and listening to the staff in a situation that was very unique,” Moore said. “I understand that, probably for some kids, it was a little scary, especially if they don’t like bats. I gotta commend them for how they handled themselves in such a chaotic situation.”