Students at Lambton Centennial School will be spending recesses indoors today after a black bear was spotted just a few kilometres from the Enniskillen school.
The bear was spotted on Shiloh Line Wednesday night in a field so officials knew it was in the area. But students on the way to school got a clear view of it this morning.
Grade seven student, Drake Landon, got a photo of the bear at the corner of Tile Yard Road and Rokeby Line as he was on the school bus this morning. Once the bear was spotted, Landon says everyone got out their iPads and phones and started snapping pictures at the novelty.
But principal Cindy Kramer decided to be cautious, contacting the Ministry of Natural Resources and the OPP about the bear spotting.
While she notes in the north, students are allowed outside when a bear is in the region, school officials are being extremely cautious today keeping the students indoors, and hoping to find out more about bear safety to tell the students how to react if there ever is a problem not the school yard.
In the meantime, the school is working to secure its garbage area so it won’t be an attractive place to stop for the travelling bear.
I think that it would be very beneficial to the public that you also post some education on black bears. I keep seeing articles from different outlets about the sightings, which is great for shock value, but with some education about black bears, maybe people will stop panicking. I would hate to see someone go out and shoot this innocent creature because they think it’s hunting children in schoolyards. Black bears are more scavengers than they are hunters and they don’t attack people unless provoked.