Staying on the Ball

They don't bounce. They're not at all like superballs, and you can't play marbles with them. So why do so many kids swipe those little balls found in a computer's mouse? "Because they can," surmises Lynette Mitchell, a media specialist for the Citrus County (FL) Schools. "It's getting to the point where companies don't want to sell you just the balls but the whole mouse," notes Mitchell. "Instead of a two- or three-dollar purchase, it's a 15-to-28-dollar purchase." That's why she and a number of other librarians are looking into a new product called Mouseal.

What's Mouseal? It's a bandage made of mylar with a strong adhesive backing that covers the bottom of a mouse and is made by Securtech (www.securtech.com), a Lake Oswego, OR, company. Librarians who have used it say Mouseal is so secure that it would take a persistent kid a good 20 minutes of persistent picking, plus one very inattentive teacher, to get a mouse ball out of its nest. Each Mouseal costs 60 to 70 cents, a company spokesperson says. "We've ordered them just to be safe," Mitchell says.