A teacher in Pine Mountain Club finds a bear in her classroom as she prepares for the new school year

KERO, IAN SAWREY, PEAK TO PEAK MOUNTAIN CHARTER, CNN

By Avery Elowitt

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    PINE MOUNTAIN CLUB, California (KERO) — Tuesday evening, Elaine Salmon (yes, salmon), a teacher at Peak to Peak Mountain Charter school was preparing her classroom for the new school year, when an unexpected visitor showed up.

She went to the office to make copies but upon returning, “…I opened my classroom door and this bear was charging towards the door,” said Salmon.

Salmon said she shut the door, locking the bear inside– with her cell phone.

“I went over, went back to the office, closed the door, locked the bear in there, and then I went back to the office to call my husband, Ian,” Salmon said. “My first thought was, is it gonna do any damage? I have a brand new floor and I already have my decorations up.”

Thankfully, there was no damage to the room– except for one of the classroom’s earthquake kits.

“We usually have an earthquake kit where they have snacks just in case of an emergency and he went through that,” Salmon said.

Coincidentally, a 5.2 magnitude earthquake occurred the following night near Bakersfield, about 30 miles away.

When Salmon’s husband, Ian Sawrey, arrived, he knocked on the window to get the bear’s attention. And that’s when it was go-time.

“The thing is, sadly, you have to hold the door open for it to stay open,” said Salmon. “So when he was holding the door open, that’s when… he called the bear’s attention and then the bear went by him, like within a foot.”

The bear then ran back into the mountains.

School staff then reviewed safety measures, with the first day of class about one week away.

Salmon said the school has never had bears come nearby when students are around, but there are still precautions in place.

“We have a shelter-in-place protocol where when there’s a bear, any wild animal around, we lock the classroom to make sure the kids don’t get out until it’s safe,” said Salmon.

And while the classroom door is made out of heavy steel, the school is taking a step ahead and switching the door handles.

“We will definitely look into the door handles now since the bears in Pine Mountain have been opening cars and opening doors,” Salmon said.

After all that, Elaine said the bear came back again, proving that maybe the furry friend loves ‘salmon’… or her classroom!

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