Each year, seventh grade history teacher Matt Tobias teaches students about the Bubonic Plague and how it affected Europe during the 1300s.

In addition to research on this important event, the students brought history to life by contracting the Bubonic Plague, walking the hallways at Salisbury Middle School with clear signs of the disease.

“Students completed a role play the day before allowing them to conclude what caused/spread the deadly disease,” Tobias said. “Students were infected by passing passes on to other students in the grade level. They would first get a rash, then turn purple from the blood vessels popping and finally black. At the end of the plague, people were also coughing up blood. Students will be continuing their research about the plague.”