Students of a New Mexico elementary school were surprised after an uninvited guest interrupted their Zoom class.

On May 12, a Sunrise Elementary School fourth-grade teacher was taking a class via Zoom from the backyard of her home when a huge snake slithered toward her. The students saw the teacher, identified as Annette Otero Nuñez, getting rattled on sighting the snake.

Speaking to local newspaper the Las Cruces Sun-News on Friday (May 29), the teacher said, "I am embarrassed to say that you can hear me get startled at least three times. The snake just did not sit well with me."

The teacher immediately called the Las Cruces Animal Control. Animal control officer Juan Valles immediately arrived at the home and captured the reptile, a bullsnake. Since the class was going on, Valles decided to give the students a quick lesson on snake safety and how to identify desert snakes.

"A lot of people are raised in this area to be fearful of snakes and I understand why. I think if we educate people and just teach them how to properly go about it, that it's not a big deal and they're not something to be scared of,” Valles told the newspaper.

The incident comes days after a copperhead snake was caught on camera biting a Texas high school cheerleader in the backyard of her home. The girl was practicing routines and also recording a video of it when she was bitten by the reptile. The girl, who initially thought she had stepped on a stick, rushed to her mother when her leg started swelling up really quick. Assuming that her daughter was stung by a bee, the mother got some baking soda and applied it on the wound. However, the swelling got worse following which she was rushed to the Texas Children’s Hospital.

At the hospital, the teen watched the video and figured out that she was in fact bitten by a snake. She was administered anti-venom and was recovering. Meanwhile, the family cleaned up the backyard to ensure that such an incident doesn’t happen again.

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