Felicia Alvarez
Los Angeles Times
A high school in San Mateo County was evacuated on Wednesday after a mountain lion was found inside a classroom.
It was the morning before the second-to-last day of school at Pescadero High School when a janitor opened the door to an English classroom and found a mountain lion beneath a desk. Local authorities received a call at 8:23 a.m. and dispatched several deputies to set up a perimeter around the school, said Det. Javier Acosta of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.
“No students and staff members were on campus,” Acosta said. “No one was ever in danger.”
Classes resumed for part of the morning, and students were told to “shelter in place” while the mountain lion was contained in the classroom, said Amy Wooliever, superintendent of the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District.
Here’s a better picture of the #mountainlion inside an English classroom at #Pescadero HS.
— Stephanie Magallon NBC Bay Area (@MagallonNews) June 1, 2022
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is responding. @nbcbayarea pic.twitter.com/kjTajLpGfP
The district later dispatched buses and evacuated the student body of approximately 140 to nearby Pescadero Elementary School, Wooliever said.
As of 12:30 p.m., the mountain lion was still in the classroom. Officials from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife were dispatched for the “safe and humane removal” of the mountain lion, according to the sheriff’s office.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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