As this long winter begins to subside, it appears the forested mountains surrounding San Lorenzo Valley High School are beginning to awaken. On February 21, 2017, a parent living in the area behind SLV called into the middle school office and reported seeing a fairly large mountain lion in the woods behind the middle school. It appears the high school mascot has decided to pay the SLV students a visit.
Over the past several weeks, there have been several reports of possibly the same cat. The cat has been seen in the area up behind the middle school softball and soccer fields, as well as throughout Fall Creek.
All San Lorenzo Valley staff members have been instructed to prohibit their students from entering Fall Creek at all times. Students are forbidden to venture outside of the boundary gates bordering the woods.
Both P.E. teachers and sports coaches were not allowed to send their students on runs in the forest. Running and exercising activities in both PE classes and Track and Field practices had to take place either on the track, football field, or in the gym. With all of these restrictions on sports boundaries, managing where and when students should practice became a little tricky.
Fortunately for the PE classes, students were still exercising in the gym due to this winter’s heavy downpours. Physical Education teachers, Ms. Lang and Mr. Coulson, were not running outside at all during that time, however, with the rains backing down, they have gone back to their outdoor schedule. They are taking their regular jogs through the forest but they are always keeping an eye out for danger. Ms. Lang joked that “I always have my whistle at the ready,” whenever they go running in Fall Creek.
The truth is, however, there have always been predators in the SLV area, but they just do not seem to be recognized as inhabitants until they are seen and then locals remember their unique neighbors in their equally unique neighborhoods.
By: Jazz Khokar
The Claw 