When you’re a veteran teacher to young children, you probably know the art of command far more than the others—so much so that even animals obey you. This is precisely what happened to Debbie Tomlinson.
The retired teacher was able to scare a black bear off her porch just by using her stern ‘teacher voice.’
Her command was so strong that the bear listened.
Before misbehaving under Tomlinson’s watch, you better reconsider!
The ex-high school instructor from Simpsonville, South Carolina, is a skilled reprimander. Just ask the black bear who attempted to steal the bird feeders from her condo’s porch in Sapphire, North Carolina.
She wasn’t just gonna sit back.
Tomlinson started filming a week prior right after her husband told her there was a bear on their balcony. She described seeing the “nursing mama bear whose young cub was foraging in the foliage below” go for her feeders.
“I’m a bird watcher, so I have feeders out, but I always bring them in at night because of the bears,” the veteran teacher shared.
But on that certain evening, she didn’t set up the feeders yet.
She gave the glass door a hard knock in an attempt to scare the bear away, but it made no move to go. For Tomlinson, that definitely was “not OK.”
Right then and there, she knew that the time has come to unleash her ever-so-commanding ‘teacher voice.’
And she did with no hesitation.
“Get down from there! Get down from there right now. Go, go, go, go! You get down from my porch right now!” Tomlinson said with so much command. “What do you think you’re doing on my porch?”
At this point, the bear began to get scared and began finding his way back down. “What do you think you’re doing on my porch? Get down. Go! How dare you?” she added.
She even started walking toward the bear.
And just like that, the bear was gone and her porch was bear-free again!
“Well, of course, I used it [her teacher voice]. It works every time. I wasn’t afraid. I just didn’t want to lose my feeders. It was very exciting,” she recounted. Black bears are widespread in the region and are particularly active at this time of year.
Tomlinson wasn’t scared one bit.
“Last year, we saw a mama and three cubs ambling across the yard beside the condos,” she recalled. “We keep our car doors locked as well. Bears know how to open them.”
Tomlinson used to teach 10th graders so her misbehaving students prepared her for this very moment. Indeed, it was all worth it!
Although black bear assaults on humans are uncommon, some have caused fatalities. Never try to escape from one if you do come across one. Instead, gently pull away while making a lot of noise.
Try shouting loudly, clapping your pans together, or tossing pebbles and sticks at the animal to scare it away. Alternately, reprimand it like a child that misbehaved, just like what Tomlinson flawlessly did!
Check out the video below to witness Tomlinson scare the bear away!
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