Parents in north Florida posted several videos Sunday of an alligator roaming the grounds of a school in St. Johns County.
One video shows it walking through the grass inside the fence surrounding Valley Ridge Academy in Ponte Vedra Beach.
A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman said someone alerted the Nuisance Alligator Hotline Sunday morning and a trapper was dispatched, but the alligator got away before the trapper arrived at the school.
“I would be scared of it if I was on school campus right now. I was hoping no one else was there,” fifth-grader Jake Romano said.
He was among several students and parents alarmed when they heard the gator was so close to the school -- and where children play.
“If you got kids around, it could be something serious,” Carlos Arroyo said. “Worst-case scenario something bad could happen, and you never want that.”
Parents said they are warning their children to be careful at school.
“If there’s a body of water, my kids know you don’t go near it, because there’s always a potential of being a gator -- that’s Florida,” Michelle Shelton said.
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