A young buck crashed through an open doorway into Piner High School's J building around 2:30 p.m. on Monday, wandering onto the second floor and into a classroom where some students were present before officers removed it. The animal smashed into furniture and a window, dented desks, broke a printer, and tore through blinds and electrical cords before anyone could stop it. No students or staff were hurt in the chaos.
The scene at the Santa Rosa campus was chaotic, according to The Press Democrat, which reported that the deer knocked over papers and other classroom materials as it thrashed around the room. School officials instructed students across campus to stay inside their classrooms while police and animal control responded. Students in the affected areas remained there until the spaces the deer had passed through could be sanitized, per the same account.
Animal Services Steps In
Sonoma County Animal Services sent two officers to the scene, where they worked alongside Santa Rosa police to remove the deer safely. An animal control officer first used a catch pole to secure the frightened buck, then checked its injuries before it could cause more damage or hurt itself further.
Once the deer was under control, officers guided it downstairs, out through the campus, and across Fulton Road into Youth Community Park. Santa Rosa police temporarily stopped traffic so the animal could cross the road safely. The park spans 73.80 acres with its main parking-lot entrance on Fulton Road, according to the City of Santa Rosa. Once released, the buck looked back at officers briefly before running off into the woods, per the same report.
Why Bucks Are on the Move Right Now
The timing wasn't random. The classroom encounter happened during the deer rut, the seasonal mating period when bucks become noticeably more active and roam farther through their territories. Male deer also shed the velvet covering on their antlers around this time of year, and residents throughout the area may notice more deer activity and more sightings during this time of year, the outlet reported.
Anyone who comes across a sick or injured adult deer is advised to call the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Cal-Tip Hotline at (888) 334-2258, extension 0, according to Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue.
Not the First Wild Classroom Visitor
Piner High's uninvited guest joins a small but recurring category of wildlife-meets-classroom incidents. A deer crashed through a glass window in a door at Mount Lebanon Elementary School in New Hampshire shortly after 10 a.m. one morning, and school staff contained the animal in a classroom until Fish and Game officers and police could remove it roughly an hour later, according to WMUR. No one inside that school was injured either.
Earlier this year, a badger was found hiding in a storage closet at Madera High School in California, prompting animal control officers to respond. They were assisted by a California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist and safely captured and removed the badger from the building, UPI reported. And years earlier, a coyote wandered into an eighth-grade classroom at Our Lady of Lourdes school in Los Angeles before animal control officers safely removed it, per a separate UPI account.
