BOONEVILLE (KFSM) -- The Booneville School District will hire an exterminator to take care of a bed bug problem in an elementary school classroom, which was discovered last week.
Booneville schools superintendent John Parrish said that four or five bed bugs were found inside a classroom and a hallway in the elementary school.
Regardless of what the school is saying, some parents are worried the bed bugs could lead to big problems. Tiffany Burke has a daughter in the fourth grade and a son in the second grade.
"I didn't want to send them to school today," Burke said.
The exterminator will head to the classroom after school on Friday (Feb. 10).
"I am happy they decided to do that," said parent Tuesday Parker. "I just don't think they should have waited until they got a numerous amount of calls from concerned parents to do that. I feel like that should have been top priority. "
Parrish admitted no official notification had been sent to parents as of 11 a.m. on Wednesday (Feb. 8).
Parrish said originally the school was planning to deal with the problem in-house after they were notified of the problem last week. He said the district purchased 81 fumigators and were planning on cleaning the building on Friday. If the problem wasn't fixed, they would hire an exterminator.
"They should've contacted everybody and let everybody know there's a possible chance of their child bringing home bed bugs," Burke said.
The Health Department was contacted Wednesday (Feb. 8) about the issue, according to the superintendent.
Parrish said he was told there are no extra precautions students, parents and teachers need to take in the meantime. Although some parents are hesitant to send their kids to school, administrators said they do not plan on excusing any absences.
"That makes me very upset because we send our children to school expecting it to be a safe and clean environment, not thinking they're sitting in their classroom being fed on by bugs," Parker said.
To learn more about bed bugs, click here.