FARMVILLE, Va. – A biology lesson about the unintended consequences for eating in class is leaving some Prince Edward High School students a little queasy.

Parents are complaining to Prince Edward County school officials after they allege a biology teacher’s recent lessons about classroom cleanliness grossed out their children. The female teacher, who was not named in news reports, apparently grew frustrated with students ignoring a “no food in class” rule despite repeated reminders, and taped a dead mouse to the dry erase board to get her point across, WTVR reports.

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

A picture of a dead rodent taped to the board in a baggie – with “#9” and an arrow pointing to it scrawled alongside – was posed online and prompted the parental outrage.

“It was disgusting,” one parent told the news site.

“I feel the school board needs to look into this more in depth,” parent Adaline Booker said. “The teacher went about this the wrong way.”

A student in the biology class who did not want to be identified told the news site the teacher repeatedly warned students not to snack in class, and is simply using the dead animal as a more effective deterrent. He also said it’s not the first time the teacher has used the tactic.

“When food gets dropped, the mice come in,” the student said. “Now she’s kind of got fed up it, so she’s showing students what happens.”

“It’s a visual to keep students from eating in the classroom,” he said.

MORE NEWS: How to prepare for face-to-face classes

Prince Edward County schools superintendent David Smith confirmed the school uses pest control services, and said officials are looking into the teacher’s actions, KFOR reports.

“Sanitation is always a concern. We have high expectations for cleanliness of all our facilities and when there’s a report of a problem we do take action,” Smith wrote in a prepared statement.

The superintendent said he expects to have some answers about the incident by Friday.

Many folks who commented on Facebook think the parents complaining about the dead rodent are being overly sensitive.

“Really, the parents are upset the teacher has a dead mouse hung in a baggie?!” Kevin Carlisle wrote. “You would think they should be more upset in the fact that there are mice running around in their children’s school!”

“They just need to get over it!” Joyce Payne posted. “It is probably the parents of the kids caught eating in class creating the stink! We used to dissect mice for biology lab, big deal!”

“Seriously? Why not do stories about real news? Whoever the parents were that called this in are laughable,” Susan Edwards added. “The school system has plenty of issues. A science teacher displaying dead mice that were found and the room and displayed in the same room, isn’t one of them. From what I’m told, she’s one of the best teachers the high school has.”