High School Student Bitten After Picking Up Rattlesnake In Menifee

MENIFEE (CBS) — A 15-year-old boy learned a painful lesson after picking up a baby rattlesnake Monday on the athletic field at Paloma Valley High School in Menifee.

For someone who competes at track and field, 15-year-old Anthony Sifuentes had to spend a few days in wheelchair.

"Scary. It was like impossible. I didn't think that I was like, you wouldn't think that it would happen to you," Sifuentes said.

He was forced to miss a track meet at school Wednesday night after his run in with a rattlesnake Monday afternoon.

The incident happened on the athletic field near the practice area for discus and shot put.

A number of track team members said they saw a snake slithering into a hole. That is when Sifuentes decided to go after it.

"On the way I saw a snake. I was walking by myself and I went down to pick it up and it bit me," Sifuentes recalled.

Bradley Taylor was also at practice that day. He did not see the snake, but he said that he certainly heard the commotion, when his coach ran by with ice for his freshman teammate.

"He told me he was chasing after it to grab it and scare people," Taylor said.

Sifuentes was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center for treatment.

"They gave me some antivenom and some morphine for the pain, because it hurt," Sifuentes said.

His mother, Rose Sotelo, said that his experience has been a much tougher pill to swallow.

"Learn from your experience, learn from your mistakes and hopefully it's not going to happen again," Sotelo said.

If he had not learned his lesson, his teammates said they would be ready to remind him when he returned to school.

"Just everyone telling him he's stupid for doing it," Taylor said jokingly.