SAN ANTONIO -- Officials at a northeast-side school say students will be allowed to play at recess after a student was bitten by a rattlesnake at the playground after school on Wednesday.
Aubrey Chancellor, spokeswoman for the North East Independent School District, said the 8-year-old boy was bitten near the back of the playground at Longs Creek Elementary.
The boy was rushed to the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.
"Students will be allowed to go outside during recess and teachers will be assigned specific areas to the play ground to monitor student activity,” she said.
School officials said they have sprayed the area with snake repellent.
Neighbors said they are accustomed to seeing snakes and other animals crawling and slithering around their yards and homes.
Rebecca Rivera and her family live across the street from the elementary school.
"I have three [kids] that go there, and I did ask them and they said, 'Yes, the snake did bite the little boy.' Well, they just started spraying it and that was it," she said.
Rivera has lived across from the school for 16 years and said she and her neighbors are concerned about their own kids after the snake bite incident.
“They need to have those people that ride around looking where snakes are to catch them," Rivera said.
Chancellor said the snake was captured immediately and released “far away from the school.”
