Stinging critter found hiding in bananas at New York school. Students fed it crickets
An eight-legged critter hiding among school food may have given a student a gnarly sting — but cafeteria staff found it first, a New York school district said.
Cafeteria workers at Stanford Gibson Primary School were following protocol and washing bananas to prepare for students on Friday, Jan. 13, according to a Facebook post from Norwich City School District, when they spotted something crawling on the bananas: a scorpion.
“All of a sudden, that mundane task turned into anything but,” the school district said.
Cafeteria staff contained the scorpion and instead of releasing it immediately or squashing the critter, gave it to the high school Zoology class as a learning opportunity, the district said.
The students “were able to capitalize on the discovery and feed it crickets and study it under a glow light,” the district said in the statement.
No staff or students were injured during the discovery or capture of the scorpion, according to the school district.
The scorpion is believed to have traveled all the way from Guatemala with the bananas, the statement said. The school district thanked its staff for following all the safety measures to prevent any harm with the scorpion.
“So cool,” one person told the school district. “Thank you for not harming him!”
“I had these as pets,” another said. “Very docile but can give a nice hard sting.”
Scorpions prefer “dry desert areas” and are found in the southern and southwestern United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Stings are painful but usually not deadly, the Mayo Clinic said. Stings from bark scorpions, however, can be life-threatening, according to the CDC. The Mayo Clinic said to see a doctor if you experience severe symptoms after a sting or if a child is stung.
Norwich is about 60 miles southeast of Syracuse.
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