Mountain lion wanders into California high school and curls up under desk

Animal refused to leave hiding spot and officials working out way to remove it

A mountain lion wandered into a California high school classroom and was found curled up under a desk (Twitter/StephanieMagallon)

A mountain lion wandered into a California high school classroom and was found curled up under a desk.

The juvenile lion was discovered by staff at Pescadero High School as they were about to open on Wednesday morning, according to San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.

“The SMCSO can confirm at this time that ALL STUDENTS AND STAFF ARE SAFE at Pescadero High School,” the sheriff’s office tweeted.

“There is currently a mountain lion that entered the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District grounds.”

Officials say that they tried to “let it out on its own” but that it refused to come out of the English classroom and appeared to be “lost and scared.”

The incident did not impact the school day as students and staff just used different classrooms in the same building.

NBC Bay Area reporter Stephanie Magallon posted several pictures of the lion underneath the desk on social media.

The SMCO made a tongue-in-cheek guess about how the lion got into the school on its Facebook page.

“Word is that the mountain lion who entered the English classroom at Pescadero High School this meowrning was there to a-paw-logize and paw-sibly ask for a paw-don to turn in its hiss-tory pay-purr a day late,” they wrote.

“Staff at the school tell us that the entry to the school was a very claw-ver way to ask for an extension on the assignment and the request has been denied.”

The incident comes just days after a nine-year-old girl in Washington state was hospitalised after being attacked by a mountain lion as she played hide-and-seek with friends on a trail.