Mr. Olsen’s New Pet Cockroach Takes Up Residence at MSMHS
Mr. Olsen's inspiration for acquiring his own cockroach was his mom, an elementary school teacher with a cockroach class pet.
Mr. Olsen, a math teacher at MSMHS, recently acquired a cockroach as a class pet. Mr. Olsen, the subject of a recent profile by The Current, said that he was inspired to get a cockroach by his mom, explaining “My mom was an elementary school teacher, and she had a cockroach in her classroom for years.” Mr. Olsen added that he was a fan of class pets, saying “I feel like high schoolers should have class pets.”
The new cockroach is named Diego, which was the result of a collaborative effort by Mr. Olsen’s classes. Mr. Olsen said that the classes “had a big March Madness name bracket” to pick the name. The name Diego came out on top over second-place name “Dr. Mr. Dinglehopper.”
Senior Nathaniel Oulton, who raises snakes and reptiles as part of a small personal business, arranged to buy the cockroach for Mr. Olsen, after Mr. Olsen was unable to find cockroaches. Nate, who is The Current’s resident bug expert, says that this species, the Madagascar hissing cockroach, is the “second largest in the world.”
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