BOISE, Idaho — A former teacher at West Junior High in Boise says years of unchecked rodent contamination in her classroom endangered her students’ well-being, ultimately upending her own health and derailing her teaching career.

Michelle Chung, who taught family and consumer sciences for more than five years at the school, said it all started in 2019 with a mouse that had hidden in her work bag and ended up loose in her pantry at home.

“In 2019, I took a mouse home with me in my work bag, and it chewed through the lining… it ran out into my pantry,” Chung said.

What followed, according to Chung, was a persistent infestation inside Room 113 — she described finding droppings in cupboards, nests behind machines, and dead rodents under sinks and in closets.

“My student actually found a ha

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