Not a prank: Snake slithers into Modesto City Schools district office
An unexpected visitor slithered into Modesto City Schools’ district office last month.
Public Information Officer Becky Fortuna thought a co-worker was playing a prank when she saw a large snake in the upstairs hallway on June 25.
“Are you playing a joke on me and putting a fake snake out?” Fortuna recalled asking Career Technical Education Specialist Sarah Gordin, whose office was nearest to the serpent.
They both looked down the hall.
“No, that’s a real snake,” Fortuna said Gordin answered.
They walked closer.
The snake reared up, hissed and shook its tail, Fortuna said. She asked an administrative assistant to call the custodian. Then she went to tell the 15-20 people downstairs that they had a photo opportunity with a gopher snake.
“It did bring some excitement to the office, for sure,” she said.
Gopher snakes typically reach 4 to 5 feet when fully grown and hiss more loudly than any other snake in the U.S., according to Stanford. They’re named after their main food source: gophers and other small rodents.
They are one of the most commonly spotted snakes in California, according to CaliforniaHerps.com. Though often mistaken for a rattlesnakes, gopher snakes do not have dangerous venom and are harmless, the website said.
Still, some community members promised in Facebook comments to never enter that building again.
“I would quit,” one person wrote.
People said they would have “screamed like a baby” or “run like you know what.”
As staff marveled at the creature disrupting their Friday afternoon, Fortuna said the custodian grabbed the snake, placed it in a 5-gallon bucket and called animal control.
Fortuna hasn’t seen a snake in her 10 years at MCS, she said. But one person wrote on Facebook that the Enochs High School baseball team used to encounter snakes often when watering the field after practice.
One commenter, with the Covid-19 pandemic in mind, asked, “Was it wearing a masssssssssk?”
This story was originally published July 16, 2021 at 11:35 AM.
