Miami may 'tent' school invested with rats

MIAMI, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- The Miami-Dade school district may tent an elementary school infested with rats if it is not able to kill them with traps, Florida officials say.

The Little River Elementary School, serving about 630 students in one of Miami's poorest neighborhoods, has rats running through classrooms and scurrying down corridors, the Miami Herald reported Saturday.

One distraught mother described how a rat jumped on her daughter's shoe this week as the 6-year-old ate in the cafeteria.

If the district tents the school, "we would have to relocate the kids," a district spokesman said.

The multiplying rodents are urinating and defecating, increasing the likelihood of the spreading of diseases such as dysentery and typhus fever, said Ann Marie Alderman, who manages the Health Department's facilities inspection program.

In addition, their incessant gnawing may damage electrical wiring and cause fires, she said.