Deer Crashes Through Window at Antietam Elementary

Note: Some photos do show a small amount of blood.

Teachers and students at Antietam Elementary School got quite a shock this morning when a large deer with a full rack crashed through a classroom window, leaving blood spattered all over the room.

Substitute teachers Andrea Brown and Pam Najjum were working at the smart board in the classroom during the morning announcements around 8:30 a.m. when the buck came crashing through the window. He jumped over the desk where art teacher Karen Moffitt normally sits at her computer each morning and wandered around the room in a daze.

Parents gathered down the hall in the cafeteria for an early morning PTA meeting, heard screams followed by an announcement over the loudspeaker that the school was in lockdown and to follow lockdown procedures. No one was to leave the building or their rooms.

Several concerned parents rushed toward the screams to try
to help. They arrived in time to see that Najjum had pulled Brown outside into the hallway, while Najjum remained in the room to try to direct the deer outside.

"I wasn't going to let him get any farther," Najjum said.

Several parents watched as the deer found his way back to the window he had come through and jumped back out. No one was injured.

"The deer looked  seriously wounded," Antietam parent Jill Wheeler said, noting that "there was blood everywhere in the classroom. Someone should call animal control and put him down."

This could have been a very different story, said Antietam principal Linda Moniusko, had the deer crashed through the window just to the right. In that classroom were a dozen preschool students with their teachers. But the art room was empty save for Brown and Najjum.

According to Moniusko, the police were called and they attempted to follow the blood trail to find the injured buck, but they could not find him.

"We are very glad that the children are all safe. It could have gone differently and I feel like we must have an angel looking out for us, and I am glad for it," Moniusko said.

Parents and staff at Antietam are left wondering what is next. People in the office could be overheard saying, "First , and , then a and now a deer in the classroom. What else?"

Upon viewing the security video it was clear that the deer
crossed from the wooded area near the entrance to the school, nearly missing a pedestrian, streaking past the flag and hurtling through the screen and window into the classroom.

Students scheduled to have art today will be routed to other
classrooms for their specials today.