Rats in the Student Store: A Cause for Concern?
Anyone who has spent a significant amount of time in the Student Store knows that it is not the cleanest place in the world. I have been a deputy several times and was always somewhat concerned about the state of the place. I heard rumors that there were rats in the store, but I passed it off as school gossip that got passed around without anything to back it up. Recently though, I decided to investigate these rumors, and what I found shocked me.
I began my investigation with a series of interviews of people familiar with the student store; their names will be kept anonymous, but among them were several former COSs. Every single one of them acknowledged the rat problem without question. When questioned further, they had this to say:
“I have seen rat feces in the student store”
“We were always told to lock up the doors to stop rats from getting in”
“I would sometimes find rat droppings in the lower cabinets especially after the breaks”
“We came back from over the break—snickers bars: all of them half eaten”
Thankfully, no one I interviewed claimed to have actually seen a rat themselves, so it is possible that something else caused these strange occurrences, but I will go over the evidence I gathered from these interviews that suggests there are rats.
Half eaten candy bars have been discovered frequently. (possibly manufacture defect)
Suspected rat “droppings” littered around the store
Various open products with “bite marks” on the packaging
While this evidence points a damning picture it is all purely rhetorical, so I went into the student store myself to see if I could find any of this evidence.
In the store I did not find any open candies or other contaminated foods, but I did find what seemed to be rat droppings in the back area of the store. I am not at all qualified to identify rat feces but I took a picture so you can try to decide for yourself.
Apparent Rat Feces Behind the Student Store
This photo from the back area of the Student Store—where it must be noted, no food is kept—provides evidence that rats do live behind the store. The part of the image I am referring to of course are the strange black dots all over the floor here. if I had a budget maybe I would get that stuff tested to see if it is really rat feces, but I also really don't want to do that.
Further interviews with former COSs suggest that the school’s administration may have been well aware of this issue:
Interviewer: So do you think the administration knew about this?
Anonymous: Not [teacher name redacted for privacy] but [different teacher name] told us to lock the doors specifically because [they] were worried rats might get in.
Several of the other students I interviewed expressed a similar idea: that the adults who help to oversee the store were concerned about this rat problem. In spite of this knowledge, no one I interviewed offered any measure taken by either a COS or a member of the faculty to do anything about the problem other than keep the doors locked. The other interesting detail the interviews revealed was far more concerning. Having heard a rumor that students had been given the food that was (potentially) opened by rats at a steep discount, I decided to ask one of the people I interviewed about it:
Interviewer: Did any students ever receive any rat contaminated food?
Anonymous: No students ever paid for any rat contaminated food.
Interviewer: Did anyone actually receive any rat contaminated food though?
Anonymous: They never paid for any rat contaminated food.
This line of questioning continued several times until the interviewee stopped answering. This does not give any clear evidence supporting the rumor, but it does imply that perhaps the discount on rat contaminated food was steeper than I realized.
All in all my investigation concluded with some evidence that there are rats living in the student store. I would say their presence is very likely but not certain. It is my recommendation to the current COS’s that they get traps or do anything to fully eradicate this problem. While keeping the doors locked is a good temporary solution, over time people will slip up and food could still get contaminated. Also I would recommend deep cleaning the store to remove all traces of rat droppings.