Utah classroom's 30-year-old python mascot dies

PLAIN CITY, Utah (AP) - A 70-pound Burmese python that spent nearly three decades as a classroom pet has died in Plain City. He was 30.

Plain City Elementary School science teacher Steve Gertsch tells the Standard-Examiner of Ogden that the snake developed pneumonia and died Jan. 29.

Gertsch says the 10-foot pet named Monty Python helped children overcome a fear of snakes and assisted during lessons. A kindergarten teacher once taught students the letter 's' by allowing the snake to slither through the class.

The snake was allowed to roam freely around the classroom under the teacher's supervision and was occasionally allowed outside with the students.

Students have been writing tributes to the snake, and an obituary was published on the school's website.

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Information from: Standard-Examiner

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