There’s a problem at a school in Templeton that’s creating quite the buzz, literally.
As teachers at Templeton Hills Seventh Day Adventist School gear up for a fresh new school year, there are some unwelcome guests that will not buzz off.
They’re bees and a lot of them.
"More than 100, easily," said Malon Bruce, Templeton Hills Adventist School Board Chair.
Bruce says the growing bee colony hasn’t bothered anyone for the past few years until recently.
Three students in 2nd and 3rd grades and two adult volunteers were stung.
"Now there’s a liability issue because everybody is concerned that there might be more children getting stung," Bruce said.
"One student, he was just walking, and he started crying – and ‘Oh, I got stung by the bee!’" said Kanther Khan, Templeton Hills Adventist School Principal.
But the school says getting rid of the bees won’t be easy.
"It’s not a simple extraction where there’s a beehive on the outside of the building where you could just scrape into a box. I mean, I’ve helped people get bees before in the past," Bruce continued.
The bees appear to be entering and exiting from the overhang of the building.
"And you can’t see the hive. The hive is evidently up over the overhang and so we have to cut out the lumber and replace the lumber," Bruce added.
It could also be a major sting to their wallet given a lack of extra funds.
A chicken coop and a garden, both favorites of the young students, are not far from the buzzing bees, causing extra concern.
"And they don’t understand exactly how the bees work as well as their characteristics," Khan said of the younger students.
With class just days away, the school is planning to get EpiPens, just in case, as an alternative to the possible high cost of getting rid of the buzzing problem.
The school hopes someone from the community might be able to help them out for free.
