Four-legged ‘surprise student’ breaks into Tennessee school through emergency exit
A deer had to be escorted out after causing quite the scene at a Tennessee elementary school.
The “surprise student” broke its way into Westside Elementary School in Springfield through an emergency exit on Tuesday, Nov. 23, according to a Facebook post from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, and an officer with the agency was called in to remove it.
Photos and videos showed the deer wandering around a classroom — and the mess it made on the floor.
Officer Kaleb Stratton, who responded to the school, told McClatchy News that the deer “peed twice and pooped everywhere” and knocked over a few chairs in the classroom.
“So how’s everybody else’s morning going today? This guy’s had a rough one,” Stratton said in the video as the whitetail buck froze and stared into the camera.
The deer, which wildlife officials estimated was between 2.5 and 3.5 years old, was “in good spirits” during the ordeal and allowed Stratton to show it to an exit, the agency said.
Stratton said the deer was not injured. The deer’s right antler was broken off, but Stratton said that it seemed to have happened prior to the deer getting into the school.
Whitetail deer are found throughout Tennessee, including in urban and suburban areas, according to the TWRA.
Males weigh an average of 140 pounds, and females weigh an average of 100 pounds, the agency said. They can live up to 12 years in the wild but “rarely reach anything over seven years of age.” Hunting is the species’ No. 1 cause of death in Tennessee.
Stratton said it’s mating season for deer, meaning that the males are “just running around wild and crazy looking for a mate” and that it’s common for them to “do stupid things right now.”
Springfield is near the Kentucky state line, about 30 miles north of Nashville.
This story was originally published November 23, 2021 at 12:03 PM with the headline "Four-legged ‘surprise student’ breaks into Tennessee school through emergency exit."
