Photo courtesy of Josh Walensky
Josh Walensky
Editor-in-Chief
One of many unique parts of the Newton South Science Department is the firsthand access that students have to living creatures. Housed in the Science Help Center (room 3210), these animals include snakes, lizards, and frogs. The animals are an important feature of the science department and are safe to have in the building. On Tuesday morning of last week, however, one of the animals—a ball python—was not in its typical container.
Anastasia the snake was missing for nearly an hour, and rumors began to circulate among the student body about a so-called “snake on the loose.” Some stated that the snake had been missing overnight, and others added that this was not the first snake to have escaped its cage this year.
Mr. Gerard Gagnon, the Science Department Head, was able to share some details about the incident.
“It’s not a fast snake and it’s not a huge snake, but it’s a strong snake… I would guess what happened was that it pushed up on the lid of its cage, got out, and probably found a little warm nook,” Gagnon said.
As soon as one realized that the snake was not where it should be, a dean was contacted.
Meanwhile, Becky Dozortsev, a senior at South, was sitting in her usual B block biology class.
“Basically [my teacher] told us that there was a snake basically anywhere around the school and that we just had to vibe with it,” said Dozortsev.
Luckily, Wheeler House Dean Dr. Meaghan Martin went into the room and searched for the snake, which she ultimately found within the hour. The snake was located about five feet from its container, curled up in a ball, and was immediately returned to its cage.
While the snake was missing, some students were making up a biology test in the room where it was found. Among these students was senior Sydney DiLoreto.
“Our teacher put us in the room with all the animals in the 3100s. Before, she told us to be on the lookout for a snake as it was on the loose. During the test, teachers were coming in and out and telling us not to worry [as] it was ‘just a python,’” said DiLoreto.
DiLoreto and some other students had been taking their test when Dr. Martin entered the room to search for the snake.
“[Dr. Martin] looked around for a minute until [she] opened the big gray cabinet in the back corner. She immediately screamed, ran back, and told us to ‘get out right now.’ She started saying stuff on her walkie talkie while continuously telling us to immediately leave… it was in there the whole time we were taking the test,” DiLoreto mentioned.
Despite a rather unique test-taking experience, DiLoreto seemed rather unphased by the event: “I don’t mind animals and I knew it wouldn’t hurt me… I wasn’t very scared; I knew it would be fine,” she said.
It is true that this was not the first situation involving a missing snake at Newton South this school year. Back in the fall, a different snake of much smaller size went missing and was never found. However, many presume that the snake was taken instead of having escaped.
“With the bigger snake, there’s a lot of muscle—you can kind of imagine it pushing. With a little snake, it seems less likely that it got out on its own and more likely that somebody took it. So we did our due diligence and we never came up with it,” said Gagnon.
The smaller snake actually belonged to a member of the science department faculty, so its disappearance caused some upsetment. However, the snake’s departure from the Science Help Center should not be the cause of any type of panic.
“It was a little itty-bitty snake, like literally three or four inches long… This is the kind of thing that you would walk through the garden and say, ‘Oh, cool!’ There’s nothing scary about it. It was sad that we never recovered that animal,” said Gagnon.
With respect to the most recent snake affairs, the incident was quickly resolved due to a vast, functioning network of efficient communication among the Newton South Community.
“Safety is critical in schools. All of the science teachers always put student safety first… I will say, humorously, if there happened to be rodents in the building, they would be the ones that would have been at the greatest risk,” Gagnon concluded.
