ASSOCIATED PRESS • January 28, 2021
The New Hampshire House Environment and Agriculture Committee held a public hearing Wednesday on a bill to designate the daring jumping spider as the official state spider. Tara Happy, a science teacher at Hollis Primary School, said the legislation grew out of a weeklong unit designed to reduce fear of spiders. “I started out with a class yelling ‘Ewwww’ and by the end of the week … they were literally waiting in line to hold a little black spider with their bare hands,” she said. “After learning how important spiders are to our world, the students were a little shocked to learn that such an important species wasn’t recognized with a state symbol.”