What Happened to Breighyan the Mouse?

April 4, 2022 was the day Breighyan (bry-yen) the mouse tested his fate and met his doom during 7th period in room 1108 during Ms. Katie Flugge’s AP World History class. It was also the day Breighyan the mouse was named Breighyan the mouse, just before his untimely death.

Daniel Herzog is the AP World History student that gave the infamous mouse his name. “I thought it would be memorable,” said Herzog, “I didn’t want this mouse to be forgotten.”

The class period began like any other Monday in Ms. Flugge’s class: a multiple-choice quiz. The students had all completed their quizzes and were said to have been enjoying a bit of free time when one student, Dayannara Espinoza, noticed movement under another student Rosie Schnieder’s desk.

The beginning of Breighyan’s short moments of fame are confirmed amongst all the witnesses that I talked to. Espinoza says she was “doing [her] work in class when from the corner of [her] eye, [she] could see the mouse running across the ground by the wall. First, it ran across Avi [another history student]. And I didn’t say anything at first because I wasn’t sure if it was a ball or a mouse. Then it slowly started walking towards Rosie. So, I calmly told her that there was a mouse right by her foot.”

Ms. Flugge, the teacher in the room, described what happened next: “Rosie [jumped] up onto her seat, the mouse [started] scurrying along the wall toward the front of the room. I [got] up and [tried] to scare it out of the classroom… but it [crawled] behind a bookshelf, then my desk, and [continued] along the wall on the north side of the room. It briefly [tried] to get inside Jake's backpack [seated] on the opposite side of the room of Schnieder, but then [started] off again along the wall, headed west. By this point, most of the class [was] up and either standing on their chairs, or trying to catch the mouse at the back of the classroom.

At this point, Mr. Joe Williams, our school’s principal, stuck his head in the doorway and said, ‘Looks like there's some fun stuff happening in here!’ to which I replied, ‘Well, we're trying to catch a mouse.’ He dropped his head and slumped his shoulders, but walked into the room to try to help with the situation.”

Manmitha Gunasekera, a popular name in the story, continued: “...It got to the back of Ms. Flugge’s class near that big trash bag. I was going to trap it with a rolled-up poster, but it crawled under the bag. We waited for it to come back out, and then I lifted the bag up and it was just laying there twitching… And it died.”

Ms. Flugge confirmed this part of the story as well, saying, “By this point, the mouse (it was really tiny), had crawled underneath a large bag in the back of my classroom that I've been storing posters in and which is, unfortunately, surprisingly heavy. The students attempted to trap the mouse next to the bag, but ended up accidentally squishing it. When they moved the bag back, the mouse was mostly dead, with just its tail twitching slightly.”

However, Espinoza described a slightly different version of this event: “Someone then started kicking the poster bag it was under, and I think it got really scared that it just died.” Herzog also thought that Breighyan died out of fear.

The final part of the story is what truly becomes conflicting: some witnesses claim that late Breighyan was left untouched on the floor, some also say that Gunasekera picked the mouse off the floor and out of 1108, while others confidently maintain that Principal Williams was the one who carried the mouse out of the classroom.

When Gunasekera was asked to explain the claims that were made of him handling the dead mouse, he replied: “That’s just false… No one touched it.” Further, he was asked if the mouse was left on Ms. Flugge’s floor until he exited the room for his next class. “Yes,” he said, “I definitely didn’t touch it, and I didn’t see anyone else.”

This student’s account goes against all other witnesses I talked to who definitely recount Breighyan’s body being taken away from the classroom. Ms. Flugge said, “Mr. Williams went over by the door and grabbed some of the sanitizing wipes, returned to the deceased mouse, wrapped it up, and gallantly carried it out of the classroom. And then we went back to learning about the Cold War.”

A few videos courtesy of Ellie Faraci give a glimpse into the chaos in the room that afternoon. They depict tiny Breighyan scurrying around the poster storage corner the witnesses talked about, and Gunasekera creating a barrier with a poster around the twitching mouse as it died. One of the videos also confirms that students were screaming in fear atop desks and chairs as poor Breighyan ran down the north wall of the room by other standing students.

Espinoza finished with, “It was a very cute little mouse. Very sad that it died.”

Rest in peace, Breighyan. And may the rest of the population of mice in Central High’s building take this as a warning to hide well from our high schoolers.