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Students kept inside after mountain lion spotted near Oak Ridge Elementary School in Salt Lake City

A mountain lion sighting prompted Granite School District to order students and staff at Oak Ridge Elementary School to “shelter in place” Thursday morning.

District spokesman Ben Horsely said staffers at the southeast Salt Lake City school spotted the big cat moving through the wooded foothills abutting the east end of the campus about 11:30 a.m.

Under the shelter-in-place order, students and staff were not allowed outside the buildings. Parents were asked to pick up their students inside the school.

Granite School District police officers also were on the campus to keep watch, but no further sightings of the lion were reported as of early afternoon.

The district says the school, at 4325 S. Jupiter Drive (roughly 3800 East), generally has about 450 students enrolled.