Report cougar sightings near school cancels recess

25 February 2009
Associated Press Newswires

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) - Students were kept indoors for recess for a second day Tuesday following reported sightings of a cougar near a western Indiana elementary school.

A Terre Haute code enforcement officer said he saw a cougar Monday morning in a wooded area near Meadows Elementary School, prompting school officials to keep the school's 300 youngsters indoors as a precaution.

"He was driving by and saw a big cat at the edge of the tree line and when he got closer he saw a big tail and saw that it was a cougar before it vanished," said Detective Sergeant Frank Shahadey of the Vigo County Sheriff's Department.

Shahadey, who is also Vigo County School Corp. security director, said Meadows Elementary's students would be kept inside for recess again Wednesday as a precaution, following two other reported cougar sightings.

Officers will also be keeping watch on the area, looking for signs of a big cat and school staff and police officers will be making sure students walking to school arrive safely.

"Until we can determine there's no threat we're going to act like there is one," he said.

Shahadey said a school crossing guard reported Tuesday that she had seen a cougar-like creature in the area Monday evening. A citizen also contacted police Tuesday to report that she saw a cougar Sunday at a nearby park.

Both of those sightings were on Terre Haute's east side in an area that includes subdivisions scattered with clumps of woodlands, Shahadey said.

No animal footprints have been found in the area, but he said the ground remains frozen.

Superintendent Danny Tanoos said the wooded area where Monday's sightings occurred is directly across from the school's playground. He said those sightings were from "very credible" individuals so he's decided to take additional precautions for a few days.

Tanoos said he's asked his staff to join city and county police Wednesday morning to make sure the school's students, grades kindergarten through sixth grade -- some of whom walk to school -- arrive safety at school.

"For the next few days, until either the cougar is captured or there are no more sightings in the area we'll be doing this," he said.

After Monday's first sighting, automated phone calls were placed to the students' parents alerting them of the situation, and students were sent home with letters to that effect.

Shahadey said the animal could be the same cougar that escaped a few years ago from a feline rescue center in adjacent Clay County. That cat was never found.

In addition to the three reported sightings, he said that after the report of Monday's sighting appeared Tuesday in the Tribune-Star two retired police officers called to say that they saw a cougar in the same general area two years ago.

"One of them told me that it took one jump, about a 10- to 12-foot jump, and the next thing he knew, boom, it was in the woods. He said it had a long tail," Shahadey said.