When the ranger’s away, the bear cub will play — and the kids will stay locked in school.
At least that’s what happened Tuesday in La Crescenta, where law enforcement and wildlife personnel spent the afternoon monitoring a bear cub hanging out in a tree in front of Crescenta Valley High School, powerless to compel the creature to go home.
As authorities determined what to do, Glendale Unified School District officials ordered the high school and nearby La Crescenta Elementary to shelter in place.
“We want to stress that things are OK, and the situation is actively being monitored,” district spokesperson Kristine Nam said.
Classes continued as scheduled on each campus, though students were not allowed to go outside, Nam said.
The school issued the shelter-in-place order from 10 a.m. to shortly after noon and then again at 1 p.m.
Though the district occasionally sends out warnings about bears and mountain lions, this is the first time Nam said she had seen a bear-induced shelter-in-place order since she joined the district nine years ago.
One parent of an elementary school student confirmed to The Times that La Crescenta dismissed students at their regularly scheduled 2:40 p.m. release time, while Crescenta Valley High dismissed students out a back exit.
There are about 2,950 students total enrolled in the two schools.
Nam said she’d received texts from parents who claimed the bear was one of a group seen in the area that included a mama bear and another cub.
The cub in the tree, however, was the only one that deputies from the L.A. County sheriff’s Crescenta Valley station were monitoring.
Deputies first received reports at 1 a.m. of a cub around Crescenta Valley High.
Lt. Michael Gonzalez said his office reported the creature to a local humane society and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t receive assistance from either,” Gonzalez said. “We don’t have personnel trained for this situation or have equipment to handle or transport animals back to their homes.”
Gonzalez said deputies could respond with lethal force only in a life-and-death situation.
Nonetheless, he said, deputies were monitoring the bear and would continue to do so.
“We hoping that, by nightfall, the bear will move out and back into its habitat,” Gonzalez said. “We’re not allowed to subdue or really do anything to move the bear home.”
Steve Gonzalez, a California Department of Fish and Wildlife information officer, lamented that his office’s bear wrangler was sick and that his department did not have on-the-ground personnel to help.
The department was attempting to send an environmental scientist to the school to help with the bear’s reunification with its family and eventual return home.
Steve Gonzalez confirmed that the bear was not tagged, so the department was not certain of the bear’s exact home, though it’s likely the nearby national forest.
“I wouldn’t say this is a highly uncommon occurrence,” the Fish and Wildlife officer said. “In this case, though, we’re deferring to local law enforcement.”
