LOS ANGELES (AP) – Students and teachers at a Los Angeles high school missed their lunch break Friday after a mountain lion strolled onto campus and tried to join them.
The big cat was spotted walking across the quad at John F. Kennedy High School shortly after noon. Instead of sitting down to eat, students and teachers quickly secured themselves in their classrooms and called authorities.
Police officers and wildlife officials responded, and the mountain lion dashed off campus and into a nearby backyard.
Officers eventually tranquilized the large animal, which wandered around the yard for several minutes looking confused as it tried to find a way around a fence that kept it off a residential street.
Eventually it sat down and dozed off. Officers moved in to remove it after it was fully asleep.
It wasn’t clear how the animal got on campus. It is in the city’s Granada Hills area, not far from foothills leading to rugged backcountry.
Still, the mountain lion would have had to make it through a large residential neighborhood and around a freeway to get to the school.
A recording left on the school’s voicemail said, “Students are all secure in their classrooms. Proper authorities are on campus to remove the animal.”