Plano students mourn death of 18-foot python

Current and former Plano students are mourning the loss of one of the school district's biggest celebrities.

An 18-foot-long, 200-pound Burmese python known as Katy died over the weekend. She helped teach children lessons about science and nature for more than three decades.

"She was more than just a snake. She was a personality," said Tammy Welch, office manager at Plano ISD's Holifield Science Learning Center.

Jim Dunlap, the center's director, started bringing Katy into classrooms in 1975. She quickly became a powerful teaching tool.

"My granddaddy always told me, 'You can't teach anybody anything if you don't have their attention," Mr. Dunlap said. "And Katy was the best attention getter that I ever had in the classroom."

Mr. Dunlap estimates that more than 100,000 students got hands-on experience with the huge reptile. For some, including former PISD student Matt Conrad, she helped them feel comfortable with a creature that is often feared.

"It was cool," Mr. Conrad said. "It was so big. I remember that, and everyone remembered that. Whenever I think of the outdoor learning center, I would think of the big snake, Katy."

Rebecca Whitefoot first saw the snake as an elementary student – and more recently in the Plano classroom where she teaches.

"I remember Mr. Dunlap bringing him to my school and stretching [Katy] all across our stage, from one end to the other end," Ms. Whitefoot said. "And I just remember her being so huge."

A gallery of photos at the Holifield Science Learning Center shows Katy with celebrities and reporters. As news of her death spread, e-mails from former students began to pour in.

"Katy was very special and even therapeutic in many ways to so many PISD students," Ms. Welch said.

One former student wrote, "I never thought I would grieve over a snake."

The center lost another longtime resident in April, when its long-tailed rhesus macaque Face died. The monkey, who was in his late 20s, was the third-oldest animal at the center, behind Alex, an 82-year-old parrot, and Katy, who was in her early 30s.

http://tinyurl.com/3y9frm