Our experts on parenting, frugal living and the best that the Triangle has to offer have scoured their sources and shopped the stores (and the internet) for the best suggestions for your holiday giving. No matter the age or interest, you'll find gift ideas here.

WRAL 2023 Holiday Gift Guide

Students are reported for possession of non-firearm weapons about 20 times as often as they are for firearms. But schools are still relatively safe places, and many crime statistics in schools have been improving for years, experts say. 

Easy to conceal, harder to detect: Knives more prevalent than guns in schools 

School lockers 

Bats Coverage

A look at how North Carolina members of Congress voted during the previous week.

How they voted: NC congressional votes for the week ending Sept. 28

U.S. Capitol

How they voted: NC congressional votes for the week ending May 11

In an interview with WCNC Charlotte, Sophia Margherio said she was using the bathroom between classes on Tuesday when a bat fell on her.



It sounds like something you'd see in a horror movie. The sophomore says she was in the bathroom going to the bathroom when a bat dropped from the ceiling and landed on her thigh. I was like, there's no way that just happened to me. A sophomore, Sophia Margalo stopped in the bathroom between chemistry and art class. I was using the bath and I was looking at my phone and then all of a sudden a bat from the top of the stall flies down and lands on my leg right here and I flick it off with my hands and I just start screaming. That was Tuesday morning the same day CMS issued a statement implying no human exposure had been confirmed but did close the school saying they plan to get rid of the rest of the bats. Just the day before the principal issued a statement saying 20 bats had been found at the school and asked parents to advise students not to touch the bats. Kids in the hallway were like, yeah, I just stepped on dead bats all over the school and teachers were just sweeping them up all in the hallways. Sofia didn't realize until she got home that the bat had actually scratched her. And when I was on the phone with the health department lady, she told me to look at my leg to see if there's a scratch. And then when I looked, I like, freaked out, I'm like mom, there's a scratch on my leg and then she was like, ok, send me a photo and then we sent it to the health department and they confirmed it was a back scratch. And when she told me that if I don't get the vaccine and I wait till sometimes that I was basically gonna die. The teen says she's frustrated because she feels like this could have been prevented. They first found bats at the school. Last month. The principal even posted photos on social media. There was photos going around on Snapchat of MS Brooks holding two bats in a container and smiling. Now more than two days after Sofia was scratched, the school and CMS have continued to deny anyone was exposed. I am disappointed to say the least the principal at the school has been notified. She's I spoke to her personally um Tuesday evening, she has the report. Um she has the photograph of the scratch. And so I I'm I'm incredibly disappointed that this has not been um disclosed. I'm so frustrated because all I was trying to do was just go to school and learn like that's it. And then I just get attacked by a rat. She's already started the series of rabies shots. She'll have to do them several times over the next two weeks reporting in Charlotte, Michelle Boden WCNC. Charlotte.

Bat lands on girl using restroom at NC high school

Bat lands on NC girl using restroom at NC high school

A 15-year-old sophomore at Ardrey Kell High School was scratched by a bat on campus.



Student scratched by bat while using restroom at Charlotte high school 

People are encouraged to check their homes for bats before May arrives, according to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.



NC Wildlife: Check your home and prepare for bat season now

Bats

Animal control was called to a Raleigh neighborhood on Thursday in response to a bat acting strangely that had come into contact with two young people. The bat tested positive for rabies, and the two young people are being treated.

Rabid bat found in Raleigh neighborhood, two young people being treated

Raleigh Police said an animal control officer captured a bat which has tested positive for rabies.

Raleigh animal control finds bat that tests positive for rabies

A Raleigh woman is being treated for rabies after she found her dog playing with a bat that tested positive for the disease.



Raleigh woman treated for rabies after encouter with bat

Raleigh woman shares warning after encounter with rabid bat

Bats often get a bad rap, evoking images of vampires and other horrors that go bump in the night, but researchers say they play a vital role in nature's ecosystem.

'Bats are friends with wings': Scientists going to bat for bats

NC bats improve your day every night, nature experts say 

Monday on WRAL-TV: We're out with wildlife resources biologists capturing and tagging bats to monitor the health of the species. They talk about how essential bats are to the ecosystem -- why they're needed and why they are not to be feared. 

Bat blitz: Tracking a vital species after dark in North Carolina's swamps

A family found a rabid bat in their cabinets Sunday, but no bites have been confirmed.

Cary family find rabid bat in home

If you have bats in your home, this is your last weekend to get them removed -- it's the law.

Bats in your attic? This NC law says it's illegal to remove them

A bat made an appearance at Johnsonville Elementary School in Harnett County during a basketball game. 