Students in Karen Hyde’s second hour Spanish II class got an unexpected guest at about 9:30 Friday morning.

While the class was in the middle of taking an oral final, an unauthorized man approached the classroom doorway, asking for a police officer.

“He didn’t walk into the classroom, he was standing out in the hallway,” Hyde said. “He was asking for a police officer or a security officer, and I told him he really needed to go to the main office in the main building.”

A social worker then escorted the man, who originally entered through an annex entrance to the school resource officers’ office.

Head SRO Mike Cobb met with the man. After some initial inquiries he deemed the man harmless. However, he noticed the man had just been released from the hospital.

“We asked what was up, and we noticed the guy had just been released from a hospital because he had a hospital band,” he said.

When the man approached Hyde’s classroom, freshman Chisato Kimura was one of the first students to see him.

“The first second I was kind of scared,” she said. “I thought he might have pulled out a gun or something. I thought he was drugged or high or something. It was not a good experience.”

Cobb noted that the man seemed mentally stable. He said the man entered the building after spotting the SROs’ police cars. The man then parked next to the cars and walked into the building, unaware of where to go.

“He just said ‘I don’t know Lawrence and I need to find a bank,’ ” Cobb added.

When asked about the security concerns brought about by the incident, Cobb stated similar things have happened several times. People have, on other occasions, entered one of the three buildings through one of the 22 open entrances.

“I would say that this isn’t the first instance of someone walking into the school, whether confused or not, and going through one of the unlocked entrances into the school,” he said.

The number of open entrances in the LHS facilities have become a hot topic among parents and teachers. The district looks to appease the safety concern with a $180,000 safe entrance project at the main doors, but many say that the addition will not suffice.

Although Cobb said the man wasn’t dangerous, students and staff are left feeling uneasy about the security of the building.

“Today I really realized that the security of the school sucks, especially in the annex,” Kimura said. “I realized that anyone could walk into the school.”

Dakota Collins contributed to this report.