Deer blasts through Tennessee school’s glass door, leaves trail of blood, video shows

A terrified deer exploded through the glass doors of a Tennessee elementary school last week and the moment was caught on surveillance video.

What it was running from didn’t show up on camera, but it was scary enough to send the deer nose-first through double-paned glass, school officials told McClatchy News.

It happened Tuesday at Scotts Hill Elementary School, 110 miles east of Memphis, and Principal Brian Lane recounts a story with elements of a horror movie. The incident happened when the school was closed, so no students were on campus.

“At about 10 p.m., our boys basketball coach, Mark Burton, came into the building in order to pick up a book and saw blood and glass everywhere,” Lane told McClatchy News.

“He tracked the blood to the locker room, which was dark, and slammed the door thinking there was a large dog.”

Burton called Lane and Lane called the Scotts Hill chief of police. A deputy joined Burton in an eerie manhunt through the school that identified the intruder as a bloodied deer. The duo then “fashioned a large cardboard shield” and used it to corral the deer, and force it out through an exit, Lane said.

Surveillance video from earlier in the night shows the deer had been wandering the school’s playground when something “spooked it,” around 7 p.m., Lane says. The deer ran through the safety glass at such speed that it tripped and nearly slid through another window across the hall, the video shows.

It spent three hours in the school, wandering the halls.

The video, dubbed “Bambi’s Night of Chaos” on Facebook, has been shared hundreds of times in the past few days, including a post Wednesday by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

Lane jokes the school of 400 students is a “magical and enchanted place” that has had a series of weird animal encounters during his seven years as principal.

“I have had a large pot-bellied pig that kept coming up to visit the kids, squirrels running through the gym, birds flying down the halls, a snake or two slithering around,” Lane said. “This was our first ‘large animal.’ I am nervous about out-of-work circus animals that are looking for assistance.”

This story was originally published August 16, 2020 at 9:48 AM with the headline "Deer blasts through Tennessee school’s glass door, leaves trail of blood, video shows."