than that. These are the conditions we're putting them in. This is their environment on a daily basis." Neither NWSS principal Mary Bushman nor Doug Templeton, district director of facilities and operations, returned messages from the NewsLeader prior to its deadline. New Westminster Teachers' Union president Grant Osborne said Wednesday he hadn't heard directly from any of his members about Tuesday's incident, but he wasn't surprised because there's been a rodent problem at NWSS for a long time. "If it's identified as a health and safety issue they are obligated to deal with it," said Osborne. "It's a problem that needs to be addressed. When teachers come in and see rat droppings around their keyboards and desks, you don't want to see that." Eight years ago, when he was a vice-president of the union, Osborne did a report on the problem at NWSS. "It's an old building. It's got a huge array of tunnels underneath it. I refer to it as a Club Med for rodents. It's warm, it's dry and there's no predators. It's a good place for rodents to hide. It's a pretty nice environment for them," said Osborne. CUPE president Marcel Marsolais, whose members include custodial staff that would have had to deal with the problem and educational assistants at NWSS, said rodents are common in old schools. "I don't feel it's any worse than any other school in the district or the region when you talk about old schools," he said, adding if there's a health