HALIFAX COUNTY (WSLS 10) - A video taken inside a second-floor girl's restroom at Halifax County High School shows a cluster of cockroaches around a stall door.
A photo of the cockroaches was posted to Facebook along with the video, which has been viewed more than 160,000 times.
"It was a little bit surprising for me because most of the time it'll be, maybe, a single pest as opposed to a group of pests in this case," said Halifax County High School Principal Michael Lewis.
An exterminator was brought in the next day, but that didn't necessarily ease students' concerns.
"They had some questions, obviously. You know, 'why were they here?' things like that," Lewis explained.
Lewis said he has not had a chance to speak to the student who posted the photo and video of the cockroaches, but he welcomes the opportunity and said he appreciates the student making the post and voicing their concern.
"We want our students to feel comfortable to come to my office, to any office here, any teacher here to report something that they feel is inappropriate," emphasized Lewis. "Of course, we have an open door policy for those students and parents."
Each day, custodians do their best to keep the restrooms clean and every evening, once students and staff are gone for the day, custodians do a deep clean.
"They get sanitized. We spray it down with a disinfectant; wipe it down, clean it. That's the walls, sinks, urinals, kamodes," said Allen Lawter. Lawter is the athletic director and also oversees some of the building and grounds work at the high school.
The restroom in questions was given an extra thorough cleaning after the photo and video surfaced.
Lewis emphasizes that in a building as big and as old as the high school, incidents like this are bound to happen from time to time, but the school will continue to do everything it can to minimize their occurrences.