Citrus Heights Kindergarten Teacher Walks In On Strange Man Inside Classroom

CITRUS HEIGHTS (CBS13) - A kindergarten teacher walked into her classroom and found a strange man standing there. Now parents are wondering how he got there and why it took the school so long to inform them about it.

Little Emily doesn't know too much about the letter her school sent home with her Monday, but it has her mom really angry - and scared.

"An unknown man was found in one of our empty classrooms," Emily's mom, Sabrina Rasmussen, read from the letter on Tuesday.

It says last Friday, the same day of the Newtown massacre, a kindergarten teacher dropped her students off at the library at Citrus Heights Elementary, and when she returned to her classroom a man was standing inside.

"It's terrifying, it's really, really scary, especially everything that happened on Friday," parent Lisa Argueta said Tuesday.

Police don't know who he is, but the man said he was waiting for his wife, which police say is likely a bogus story since he bolted after the teacher questioned him. A man with a similar description was seen last week after hours peering into windows.

"If someone could that easily walk up on campus, go find an empty classroom and just sit in there, I mean, what else could he have done?" Sabrina asked.

The San Juan Unified School District is looking into what went wrong, a spokesman said.

"Certainly some conversations with staff reminding them of existing policies," Trent Allen said.

The policy is all classroom doors must stay locked at all times in this open-aired school. Sabrina also is mad because the school waited three days to tell parents what happened.

"That is one of the pieces that we are reviewing, the benefits of doing a call (Friday), our automated call system, versus having done a letter on Monday morning," Allen said.

The school does have security cameras and police are reviewing footage.