Teen sex education class rudely interrupted by rogue snake

A group of teenagers got a shock when a 2ft long snake slithered its way through a ventilation duct and into their sex education lesson. The group of 15 was sitting down to begin the class at the Twenty Twenty education centre in Leicester when they spotted the cold-blooded visitor wrapped round a painting on the wall.

At first, the puzzled classmates assumed it was toy until 18-year-old Jack Martins went over to take a closer look and got a nasty surprise. Jack said: “I went to grab it and it jolted its head back which threw me backwards and I hit one of the tutors. I’ve had four snakes as pets before so I wasn’t scared but it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.” As Jack and a handful of friends discussed ways of trapping the intruder, other less courageous members of the group got as far away as they could.



Lauren Postles, 19, said: “I didn’t even see it, I just heard the word ‘snake’ and I freaked. I was a whole classroom away but that felt too close. I had to go upstairs to the office with a friend and I just cried.” Eventually, an RSPCA officer arrived and took the snake away – reassuring the shaking teens that it was nothing more than a corn snake, a popular non-venomous pet. The officer said it had likely escaped from a nearby home and entered the building through a ventilation duct.

Centre manager Sarah Ford said it was all very exciting, but she was glad it was over. She said: “It definitely livened up the day. We had no idea if it was poisonous or not so it was quite scary, but some of the class seemed to love it – and obviously others didn’t. There was one girl who was really scared and started crying so she had to go upstairs, but others were really keen to play with it and pick it up. I was just thinking health and safety and worrying about someone being bitten. I was hoping nothing would go wrong.”