Cap? Check. Gown? Check. Pet Snake? WHAT? At 10, @TracyABC13 talks to the senior who brought his slithering sidekick to graduation. pic.twitter.com/w8gB16ImuL
— ABC13 Houston (@abc13houston) May 16, 2017
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Danielle Motley noticed something unusual at Texas Southern University’s graduation Saturday, and it was wrapped around one of the graduate’s arm.
The young man in those pictures is Denzel Young. He said the 3-year-old ball python is his pet, and that the snake takes him away from everything.
“When I did have my ups and downs with school, just having her around makes me feel the positivity,” said Young.
Young said everyone knew him on campus as the guy who always brought his snake, Persia, around.
“I told everybody this is my graduation, so I’m going to do what I want to do. So I’m going to bring it and that’s what I ended up doing,” he said.
The university says only service animals are allowed at graduation and that there’s no need to change the rules because Young must have had it under his gown and slipped past graduation officials.
“I really didn’t try to hide it,” Young said. “I just had it under my wrist. But you know the gown is kind of long so people technically didn’t see it unless I lifted up my sleeve for them to see it.”
Young told Eyewitness News he handed the snake off to his little brother right before his school was up to walk across the stage, so he didn’t have it when he actually received his diploma.
Some people like to decorate their grad caps with jewels and trinkets, but thats been done. Danielle Motley decided to flip the script and one up his fellow classmates in epic fashion. I have seen people bring their “therapy dogs”, but a python is unprecedented. This is a badass move, but i’m not sure how I would feel about sitting next to this monster for a 3 hour graduation.
While someone people (Like me) are scared shitless of snakes, but I guess some psychopaths graduating with Danielle had other feeling about his slithery companion.
One student wrote;
“I think Al Green was still up giving his speech and we were like ‘that’s a snake right there,’” Motley said. “He touched it, he pet it and we realized it was real then.”
She said the snake was the talk of her section, but eventually they let it go, but not before snapping a few pictures.
“Everybody was like meh, no use freaking out. We were packed in there like sardines at this graduation, so there was nowhere to run,” she said.
We all know pythons aren’t venomous but it’s still a huge 3-5 foot snake. I for one would not want to spend one of the most exciting, proudest days of their life next to that thing flickering its disgusting snake tongue at me while i’m trying to relish in my academic achievements. Maybe if this was a graduation from zoo keeping school, if there is such a thing, then it would be chill.
