Spiders

I found a somewhat large spider in my bathroom last week. Being from Colorado and raised to not kill spiders unless they're poisonous and even not necessarily then- because they're good and kill other bad insects- I just trapped the spider and threw it out my fourth floor window. I watched it then land on the ground and quickly crawl away. Success.

This was NOT the fate of the same size and kind of spider in my L.A. classroom!

The spiders were about 3/4 of an inch (main body parts) and a little bigger with the legs. I asked one of the teachers at school if the spiders here are poisonous and he said, "No," so I figured I didn't need to kill it.

So what happened in my classroom? There I was in the middle of teaching and a girl pointed and screamed because she saw a spider at the front of the classroom. All the girls then proceeded to scream and run to the other side of the room. Since there's nothing in the classroom to absorb sound, their cries were loud and resonating! Even most of the boys didn't seem to want to get close to it, though they seemed curious which I was glad to see!

I told the students not to scream, and to sit down, which they did but with much hesitation. They continued to stare in the direction of the spider who was now in the corner. I tried to tell them it was as scared of them as they were of it. So class resumed for about one minute or so. Then the spider apparently moved and all the girls screamed again. I could tell class could not continue until the spider was dead. Dangit - I didn't want anyone to kill the spider! But the show (class) must go on!

Therefore, the unavoidable became obvious. 

I told the girls, who were still screaming and therefore probably disrupting all the other classes nearby, that they could go out into the hall until the spider was dead, which they promptly did. One of the boys went after it with a clunky desk, and the chase was on for a few seconds. He haphazardly caught the spider with one desk leg, and *I* ended its poor life with my indoor school shoe. Sadly, I cleaned up the body with the piece of unused toilet paper I always carry in my jacket pocket (because there's no toilet paper in the one and only bathroom in that particular building). After that, I announced to the girls in the hall that it was dead and they came back into the classroom, but the one who's desk was used to kill the spider would not sit there! Bravely, as if facing a battlefield, one of the boys agreed to trade seats with her. Finally, class resumed.