Mountain lion wanders into California high school, gets trapped in classroom

A mountain lion wandered into a high school in Northern California on Wednesday morning and was trapped inside a classroom, authorities said. 

“The mountain lion, believed to be a young cub, entered the high school this morning and the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office was notified at approximately 8:23 a.m.,” San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook. 

According to the Sheriff’s office, a custodian saw the animal walk into a classroom and quickly shut the door behind it, containing the large animal. 

“A mountain lion is currently being contained in a classroom at Pescadero High School. Wildlife authorities have been notified for its safe removal,” said San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. 

We’re not sure of the context, but this appears to be a mountain lion inside a Pescadero High classroom this morning. Sheriff says everyone is safe. We’re working on more details. Photo courtesy School staff pic.twitter.com/z8MA4yi00N

— Half Moon Bay Review (@hmbreview) June 1, 2022

The sheriff’s office said all students and staff were safe and that there was no immediate threat.

"Definitely not what I was expecting today when I came to school. I was expecting some tough finals, but a mountain lion," said 10th grader Jay Alsadier. "I've seen some, but for it to be at school, that's pretty crazy."

"It was pretty small. It was a cub. It didn't look that threatening to be honest. It was just a little cub," he said. "It seemed pretty scared. It seemed more scared of us than we were of it."

California Department of Fish and Wildlife arrived at the scene at around 9:30 a.m. The agency is working on releasing the animal back into the wild. 

"We used a dart tranquilizer rifle to put a drug mix into the animal through the dart. It went down smoothly. No problems," said John Krause, Sr. Wildlife Biologist for the Bay-Delta Region. "It is safely being transported to Oakland Zoo, where we'll work with our partners to get the animal assessed and find out its condition before we release it."

An agency official told Fox News that the young mountain lion did not act aggressively. He added that the feline looked emaciated and in poor health.