A parent of a Durham Public Schools (DPS) student in North Carolina claims they found bedbugs on his school-issued laptop, WRAL reported Friday.
An email from Riverside High School Principal Gloria Woods acknowledged that bedbugs were found on a Google Chromebook stored in the school's media center over the summer, news outlets reported. Reported.
A DPS spokesperson told WRAL that the laptops were distributed during freshman orientation on Aug. 26, before classes began. The school is reportedly asking students to return the laptops. DPS has also asked parents to check their homes for bugs, local media reported.
Bedbugs are tiny insects that feed on the blood of their human hosts and are considered a pest of public health importance. According to To the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“However, unlike most public health pests, bed bugs are not known to carry or spread disease,” the EPA said. Bed bugs are difficult to identify because of their small size and tendency to hide, the EPA added. Bed bugs have been known to hide in electronic devices and, in rare cases, Terminix. Reported. (Related: Celebrities deal with serious bed bug problem at Paris Fashion Week)
The new school year kicked off with an electronic glitch that resulted in more than 50 employees receiving incorrect pay slips, the outlet reported.
“What we're seeing is a lot of confusion and a lot of discrepancies between what individuals thought they would receive and what they're actually getting in this pay stub,” Micah Twittmeyer, president of the Durham Association of Educators, told WRAL, acknowledging the oversight.
DPS acknowledged the mistake. “It is our understanding that 55 employees were underpaid as a result of our department's inadvertent decision to change their status from unlicensed to licensed or pending state review,” DPS Superintendent Anthony S. Lewis was quoted as saying. Lewis added that the employees who were underpaid would be paid an additional salary.
