Schoolchildren's lesson interrupted by creepy crawlies falling from sky
David Crichton: The teacher collected over 100 worms after the unusual rainfall on April 1st 2011 in the noon 11:32 am.
Pupils at a Scots school had to run for cover when it started raining worms during their PE lesson.
Teacher David Crichton was leading a group of pupils playing football on an astroturf pitch at Galashiels Academy when dozens of the slimy creatures began plummeting from the sky.
The second-year boys had to abandon their lesson as the earthworms fell during the bizarre incident.
David said the children had just completed their warm up when they began to hear "soft thudding" on the ground. The class then looked to the cloudless sky and saw worms falling on to them.
The 26-year-old teacher said he was baffled by the unexplained incident. Later he and other teachers found more worms spread across a tennis court almost 100 yards away.
David said: "We went out to one of our outdoor areas - an all weather astroturf pitch.
"We were out playing football and had just done our warm up and were about to start the next part of the lesson. We started hearing this wee thudding noise on the ground. There were about 20 worms already on the ground at this point.
"Then they just kept coming down. The kids were laughing but some were covering their heads and others were running for cover for a while. They just scattered to get out of the way."
The bizarre occurrence took place at around 9.15am on Tuesday. The teacher then scooped up handfuls of the worms as proof they had landed on his class.
David said he and his colleagues eventually found around 120 worms in total after checking the artificial football pitch and tennis courts.
He added: "After it happened I counted about 60 on the multi purpose court we were on. I went in and told the other PE teachers and we went out to the tennis courts about 100 yards away. There were about 60 there on the tennis courts - so there were over 100 in total.
"Everyone was having a laugh at me about it until they went out and saw for themselves. They were joking about it - and I said 'if you don't believe me go out and have a look'. Everyone thought I was mad. They came back in and looked shocked. The boys have certainly been talking all about it since then.
"I spoke with the science department here but none of them had any explanation for it. One of them thought maybe it was a freak weather thing. But it was such a clear, calm day. And we are quite a bit away from any of the buildings so it's not like anyone could have been throwing them.”
Showers of worms falling from the heavens have been reported in the past. In 1872 worms were reported falling in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 1877 in Christiana, Norway, and in 1924 in Halmstad, Sweden.
More recently, in July 2007, a woman was crossing a road in Jennings, Louisiana, on her way to work when large clumps of tangled worms dropped down from above. That incident is believed to have been caused by freak weather over a nearby river lifting water and worms and dumping it over the road.
Comments
Post a Comment