Monty the python at home among Alma Schrader fourth graders

There was a python wrapped around their teacher's neck Thursday morning, but the fourth graders at Alma Schrader Elementary School in Cape Girardeau were not concerned. After two weeks of school, they'd all grown used to having Monty, a ball python, in their classroom.

Their teacher, Rhonda Young, said she got her snake 23 years ago when Monty — named after the British comedy troupe Monty Python — was just the size of her pinkie finger.

Ball pythons, commonly known as royal pythons, can live up to 30 to 40 years, Young said.

Young said she has always had an affinity for animals some consider creepy or scary.

"My family has no idea where my love of snakes, spiders and insects came from," Young said.

In the front corner of the classroom, where Monty's tank sits, is another glass tank holding hissing cockroaches. There is also a collection of spiders, insects and a small bat preserved in glass.

Young said she hadn't intended to get a snake, but one day she drove past a pet store, went in and came out with Monty.

While some of the fourth graders sat on a rug reading books, Monty snaked around their legs seeking someplace warm to curl up. When the students were asked whether any of them were afraid of snakes, none of them raised their hand, though many of them said they were scared at first, but not for long.

One student raised her hand and said she wanted to get a snake as a pet but her mom said "no" because she was too scared.

But Young asked the students what they should tell their parents about snakes as pets and they all chanted back: "It's the best low maintenance pet you'll ever have!"

Young said snakes such as Monty can be left on their own longer than dogs and cats. She said they only have to eat once every month, usually live mice — Monty turns her nose up if they've been frozen — and they don't mess up their cage.

"Monty has helped people get over their fear of snakes. Fear of snakes and spiders is a learned fear," Young said. "Because the only fear you have when you're born is fear of falling. So, I've found over the years that people who are afraid, are really afraid of the element of surprise, like when they aren't expecting to see a spider or a snake, they jump back."

Young said she finds holding Monty is relaxing and therapeutic. Also, she said she and Monty are perfect together because she is usually too warm and Monty is cold blooded, so when she drapes Monty over her neck, she gets cool and he gets warm.

"Monty has a personality like a cat or a dog," Young said. "She'll take a nap with you just like a lap dog. She snores. She's ticklish. And one of her markings looks like a happy face,"

Young said she wants all her former students who met Monty over the last 23 years to know she is still around and going strong.

"Honesty, for 23 years, I can't tell you how many kid's hands Monty's been in," Young said.