Black bear wanders onto metro Atlanta elementary school’s playground, forcing lockdown

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — A surprise visitor showed up outside a Forsyth County elementary school playground Tuesday – a black bear.

The school staff ordered everyone to stay inside for the day, and the principal of Poole’s Mill Elementary School sent a message to parents.

“I’m writing to let you know that this afternoon we spotted a black bear outside the fence by our playground,” Kristen Glass wrote. “We immediately brought the students and staff indoors and contacted our SRO (school resource officer) and the district School Safety Department.”

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A few miles away, Angel Del Vescovo photographed a black bear in her neighborhood along Glenn Ivey Drive on May 7.

“He went across the street to the neighbor’s house, came out and sat on the front porch for a second or two, and then he left,” she told Channel 2′s Bryan Mims. “I’ve only been here a little over two years, and to see a bear it was, like, amazing.”

She thinks construction in the fast-growing area has forced bears into neighborhoods and school property.

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Kaitlin Goode, urban program manager for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, said it’s not so much habitat loss, it’s that young male bears are on the move.

“This is the time of year we have young male bears trying to move out and find their own territory,” she said. “And so that bear was, for lack of a better term, lost and just trying to find his way around.”

Goode described the bear population in north Georgia as “healthy and abundant,” saying the animals generally don’t bother people.

“As long as you give them space and respect the fact that they’re a wild animal, they really don’t pose any harm to us,” she said.

Since the animals are on the move now, she stressed the importance of securing trash, bird seed and pet food. If you want the bear off your property – and you’re in a safe location – she said “yell at it, honk your horn, bang pots and pans. Make that bear feel as uncomfortable at your house as possible, and that will keep it moving.”

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