A bill with teeth -- scales, actually

A bill proposed by two pupils from Kingston has snaked its way through the State House.

Both the House and Senate passed a bill that designated the garter snake the official state reptile. The bill needs the governor's signature to become law. It wasn't clear last night whether the measure has the governor's support.

Reached at home yesterday, 11-year-old Sam Ballerini of Kingston said his rationale for proposing the bill was simple. "It's the most common reptile; you can find it in anyone's backyard," he said in a telephone interview. "They're helpful, too. They keep the mouse population down."

Ballerini and his friend Darryl Sampson Jr . came up with the idea of naming the garter snake the official reptile representative of Massachusetts when they visited the office of Representative Thomas J. O'Brien as third-graders at Kingston Elementary School three years ago.

"I asked him if there was a state reptile, and he didn't think there was," said Sampson.

The two boys presented O'Brien with information about the garter snake, and he agreed to sponsor the bill. The boys then helped file the bill at the State House and attended public hearings where they talked to other representatives.

"The selling point for the legislation was the garter snake is the only reptile found naturally in all cities and towns in the Commonwealth," Rebecca Tremble , a spokes woman for O'Brien, said in August.

The bill passed in an informal session with no formal vote, said Representative Patricia A. Haddad, a Democrat from Somerset. "I'm not a snake fan, but I don't object to it," Haddad said last night by phone. "These bills are usually proposed by kids in the classroom, and it's great because it gives them a chance to get involved in the process."

Ballerini has encountered many a garter snake in his yard. "I've captured some and tried to feed them, but I usually let them go," he said. "My parents don't like snakes, especially my dad."

RICHARD CHERECWICH