On the second day of school, veteran first grade teacher Jeannette Zirbel thought she’d seen it all.
During lunch, she began unpacking her students’ backpacks — a routine task since parents often send in tissues or Clorox wipes for the classroom. One bag, however, felt unusually heavy.
Zirbel figured it was just extra supplies.
But when she unzipped it, she came face-to-face with a pair of blinking eyes.
“I screamed,” Zirbel told The Dodo. “My first grade teacher friend and I zipped up the backpack and took it straight to the office!”
The staff and principal gathered around in disbelief. Inside the bag was Aphrodite — a pet snake that one clever little boy had managed to smuggle into school without his parents noticing.
Earlier that morning, the student had chatted excitedly about his beloved pet, but Zirbel had no idea Aphrodite was actually sitting in his backpack the whole time.
“This will mark my 30th year of teaching, and that is clearly the craziest thing I’ve ever found in a backpack,” Zirbel said, laughing.
When the school called the boy’s mom, Samia Rhine, she rushed over from work — worried first and foremost about the snake’s well-being. Aphrodite was chilly from her time in the backpack, so Rhine quickly warmed her up. Then came the talk with her son.
“I said, ‘You cannot take this snake to school,’” Rhine recalled in a TikTok video. “People are scared of snakes!”
After heartfelt apologies all around, everyone could laugh about the ordeal — especially once Aphrodite was safely back home.
No harm done, just a classroom memory that no one will ever forget.
