Octopus goes to school?
Published 11:19 am Monday, September 30, 2013
When physical education teacher Dan Drake found an octopus on the school grounds this morning he thought it was unusual.
“It’s the mystery of the day,” said Joe Maduska who manages ground maintenance and also got a chance to see the odd sight. In the three years he has worked at the school he has never seen such a creature on the lawn.
Science teacher Gregory Books decided to have his students collect the octopus for further inspection.
Students Shelbi Rogers and Bella Nigretto scooped up the octopus and put it in a plastic bucket. Books said they will probably freeze the specimen.
“It’s sad,” said Nigretto.
Books suspects that due to several trees that were ripped out of the ground in Buck Park, that the octopus and trees may be related. Books said a waterspout, a kind of tornado formed over water, may be the culprit. But after sending several students out to inspect the grounds, they could not find any evidence of any other sea life at the school.
“It would be odd to have a waterspout only drop off one octopus,” said Books.
High School Principal Kyle Freeman said perhaps the octopus was killed by wave action and then a bird picked it up. Then perhaps the bird dropped it because it was too heavy.
Books said this is possible, but that they may never find the truth.
“There is really no good explanation for it,” he said.
