Mother bear, cub play on North Carolina school's playground

Mother bear, cub play on North Carolina school's playground

(Web Desk) – A teacher at a North Carolina school captured video of a mother bear and her cub playing on the playground slide outside the building. Betsie Stockslager Emry, a fifth-grade teacher at Isaac Dickson Elementary School in Asheville, said she was leaving the school s campus after the school day last week when she spotted the two bears climbing on the playground equipment.

"This made my day," Emry wrote on Facebook. "I love how the mama goes down the big slide and quickly runs to the smaller slide -- only to bear hug the little one as they make it to the bottom."

School officials said Emry s video was filmed after the school day, but some students were still on campus for a homework assistance program. They said all of the students were kept safely inside the building while the bears played on the slides.

Emry said bears are not an uncommon sight at the school.

"We often have bears visit: our school is in downtown Asheville, and the students are used to going into a perimeter lockdown when the families show," Emry told McClatchy News. "The voices in the video are teachers enjoying the moment."