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An art teacher at Bryant Middle School in southern California tragically died from rabies after getting bitten by a bat in her classroom. According to KFSN, Leah Seneng noticed the bat in her classroom in mid-October and attempted to capture it so she could bring it outside and release it.
However, while she was scooping the bat up, it woke up and attacked her.
"I don't know if she thought it was dead or what cause it was laying around her classroom and she was trying to scoop it up and take it outside. She didn't wanna harm it. But that's when I guess, it woke up or saw the light or whatever, it swooped around a bit, and it took off," Seneng's longtime friend, Laura Splotch, told the news station.
Seneng did not initially show any symptoms of rabies, but her condition began to deteriorate. About a month after she was bitten, her daughter took her to the emergency room, where she was put into a coma. She passed away four days later, on November 22.
Health officials said there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission of rabies and that Seneng's close contacts have been given a rabies vaccine as a precaution.