School’s out for summer, but not for Speedy the snake

Photo by Ian McRae     SPEEDY OUTSIDE–Speedy the snake hangs out at the Nome Elementary School playground. 

By Anna Lionas

    It’s finally summertime which means Speedy the snake will have Nome Elementary School to himself for a few months. The 8 foot long, black with yellow spots, non-venomous python is one of the most famous classroom pets in town, bringing joy to students and adults alike during his 27 years of life.

Third grade teacher Ian McRae is the keeper of the classroom where Speedy dwells. Though you wouldn’t think it from looking at the serpent, McRae likens him to a cold-blooded killer… of small rodents. But the python is completely safe for humans to handle, and there has never been an incident or injury in all his time around children.

Photo by Ian McRae   STUDENT AND SNAKE–Zac Slingsby bonds with class pet Speedy.

McRae and Speedy have been acquainted since 2001. Former Nomeite and teacher Karen Chadwick passed the snake on when she moved out of Nome.

Chadwick originally smuggled Speedy to Alaska in the late 1990s, proceeding through airport security with him coiled in her undergarments. When she was leaving town, it was important to Chadwick that Speedy stayed in the classroom and continued his educational work for future generations of students.

McRae is very comfortable with the creature he ended up with; he’s as good a companion as he is a tutor. Though there is the ever present worry he’ll forever be known as ‘that snake guy,” McRae still engages in frequent conversation with his slithering confidant.
“I talk to him a lot in English,” McRae said. “Occasionally I speak in parseltongue, too,” referencing a language originating from the Harry Potter book series that allows wizards to communicate with snakes.

Though they may not be best friends, it’s likely Speedy recognizes McRae after decades spent in his class.
Speedy is all smell, McRae said, and he has a pretty good olfactory memory, which is why he’s typically uncomfortable when being held by someone new for the first time but by the third or fourth he becomes more relaxed.Their closeness is evident by the way the snake hugs McRae’s arm, maneuvering effortlessly across him as the teacher speaks. “Even people from years ago, he seems to remember, I'm assuming it's the smell coming off their skin, but he’s blind as a bat,” McRae said.

Though his genus is a jungle carpet python, Speedy has lived most of his life in a tundra environment. The ethics of this are questionable, but it’s not like Speedy’s lived a bad life. He’s beloved by hundreds. He is never wanting for a meal. And every summer he gets more than enough sunbathing done in his large enclosure by the window, which he often escapes to explore the classroom he’s occupied for decades.

Photo by Ian McRae  SNAKE SCIENCE–Ian McRae’s class conducts a science experiment, will Speedy the snake go for the students wearing coats (warmth) or not wearing coats (cold).

There’s been so many times he’s gone missing McRae can’t count anymore. And while he’s never had to make an announcement over the school loudspeakers about a missing snake, days have gone by when Speedy didn’t show his scales at all.
“I have often gone out on the playground and gotten kids at random. I say, ‘Can you come in here and help me search for the snake?’ And kids are always willing. You know, they all come running,” McRae said.
He’ll always turn up in a high point in the classroom, tucked behind a good book, looped into a storage box or entwined in stacks of school supplies.

With an estimated lifespan of 30 years, it’s uncertain how much time Speedy has left.
“He’s fabulously old,” McRae said.
His age shows in a few ways, like the shedding process, which happens about four times a year. When the Nugget paid Speedy a visit, he was nearing the end of his winter shed, with patches of translucent skin clinging to the last few feet of his body.
“When he was a younger snake, he'd take all the skin off himself, and we'd have this great looking shed. A lot of the times, it would be one piece. But since he got so old, I have to help him shed,” McRae explained.

He also hasn’t been able to eat a live rodent for over seven years. This is partially because there are no mice or critters small enough for him around town, and partially because McRae isn’t sure he could handle the larger tundra beings. “I’m pretty sure if I put a live rodent in there, it might beat him up,” McRae said. But if someone would happen to bring Speedy a “slow, tame, good-natured mouse” it might make his year, McRae suspects. And, as a reward, they’d get to watch him eat it.
One of the main roles Speedy plays in the classroom is as a teacher of the scientific method, leading many different experiments and lessons.
Speedy’s diet consists of swallowing a thawed, dead mouse once every two weeks, which McRae turns into a lesson, having the kids measure different parts of the process, timing how long it takes him to initially “strike” the mouse and strangle it and counting the number of gulps it takes to get the rodent down his gullet.

“I've always felt like in a Lower 48 school or something, that the kids might be traumatized watching the snake strangle and then swallow the little mouse,’ McRae said. “But our kids in Nome are versed enough in predator-prey relationships. Yeah, no kid has ever been freaked out by it.” Speedy has been the first reptile seen by many in the Norton Sound region; to McRae’s knowledge, no student has ever been afraid of being in his class because of the snake, in fact, he thinks it’s an incentive.

Photo by Anna Lionas BUNKING WITH BOOKS–Speedy the snake checks out the reading material in Ian McRae’s classroom.

Not hoarding the benefits of a reptilian pet, McRae often loans Speedy out to other teachers for their lessons. He’s also visited by students or community members who are fascinated by a creature so rarely appearing in the Arctic.
McRae laughed as he told the story of two elders from Diomede who came to his classroom while passing through Nome, after hearing he was housing a snake. “They were just staring at Speedy and one of them said, ‘Is it real?’ It was the first reptile they had ever seen.”
But he’s not the only reptile in Nome Elementary School. Just a few feet below Speedy’s dwelling sits the tank of his neighbor, Johnny, the turtle. A Red Eared Slider, Johnny lives his life in water and is another fixture of the classroom.
And while often Speedy is the reason why students want to be in his classroom, McRae said Johnny is just as beloved.

This summer the two will get a break from educating and spend most of their time basking in the sun, though McRae plans to visit every day and occasionally bring Speedy outside.
A lot of people ask McRae if Speedy is still alive, and he’s always happy to report it’s so.
“I’ve been teaching so long that sooner or later here I'm going to retire, so I'm not sure when, but maybe he'll go the distance with me,” McRae said. “I hope he goes on living. I do love him.”