A 60-year-old California art teacher died earlier last month after she contracted rabies from a bat she had found in her classroom weeks earlier.
Leah Seneng was working at Bryant Middle School in Dos Palos in mid-October when she found a bat in her classroom.
“I don’t know if she thought it was dead or what because it was lying around her classroom and she was trying to scoop it up and take it outside,” a longtime friend said.
“She didn’t want to harm it. But that’s when I guess it woke up or saw the light and swooped around a bit before taking off.”
The teacher did not immediately display symptoms but within weeks, her condition took a turn for the worse.
“It’s devastating to see her in that state, with all the machines hooked up and everything, it was pretty upsetting and scary.”
Seneng died on Nov. 22. The Fresno County Department of Public Health assured that there is no public threat related to the incident.
