Alpine School District and the Joker are having the same problem these days -- bats.

According to a lawsuit filed in Provo's 4th District Court earlier this month, Chase Jackson, Turner's son, caught a live bat at school in September and passed it around among some friends while he kept it as a pet for a couple of hours. After receiving a letter several days later warning that contact with bats carries a risk of rabies, Turner took her son to get vaccinations for the disease.

Treatment for rabies exposure consists of five vaccines administered over the course of 28 days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is no effective treatment for rabies once a patient begins to show signs of the fatal disease.

Matthew Howell, Turner's attorney, said they have not determined a dollar amount they are seeking in the lawsuit against the district, though he said they are seeking reimbursement for the $2,000 treatment Jackson underwent. More importantly, Howell said, they want the court to force the district to take responsibility for its students and to do more to protect them from hazards.

"The school should be doing everything it can to prevent these things from happening, but when they do happen -- as they will occasionally -- they need to make sure that students are kept away from them. It's the school district's responsibility to keep kids away from hazardous situations," he said.

Alpine School District spokeswoman Rhonda Bromley said the school paid about $6,800 for post-exposure rabies treatment for seven students.

She would not specify whether Jackson was one of those seven students, but said the treatment was offered to anyone who thought they may have been exposed to the bats that infested the school in September.

"We offered it to ... anyone and everyone that wanted to, but there were seven that actually turned in claims to the district," Bromley said.

But Howell said Turner was rejected when she asked the district to compensate her for her son's treatment.

"They told her that it's between her and her insurance company," he said. "We deny they offered to pay my client anything."

Howell also criticized the school for allegedly not doing enough to inform students and parents of the bat infestation, or to protect them from exposure to the pests. He said the district was aware of bats that were present in all or most parts of the school, and that it initially did nothing to get rid of them or to warn students of the potential dangers.

In the civil complaint he filed in court, Howell said the district may have even taken steps to protect the bats.

Bromley said the school first became aware of bats on the LHS campus on Sept. 6, learned the extent of the infestation on Sept. 8, and sent letters to parents the next day. She said parents received the letters on Sept. 17, three days after Jackson caught a bat on campus. Bromley did not know how long the bats had been at the school before being discovered.

In addition to the letters, Bromley said, signs were posted on campus warning students about the bat infestation, and announcements were made over the school's intercom system for two straight weeks.

The school compiled a list of about 20 students who were directly exposed to the bats, and those students were called into the school office and their parents were called directly, Bromley said.

Bromley said the infestation was limited to the school's small gymnasium. Most of the bats were killed within 10 days of the school learning of the infestation, and all were gone within two weeks, she said.

• Jeremy Duda can be reached at 344-2561 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it