Wildlife Swamps Dallas School

Nature ran amok at a high school here over summer vacation, bringing alligators, poisonous snakes and bobcats to campus grounds, school officials said Thursday.

Beavers apparently dammed a stream flowing near A. Maceo Smith High School, creating a 15-acre swamp that became home to two alligators that moved in while classes were out for the summer.

Dallas animal control supervisor Tim Hawkins said he has seen two alligators, about 4 to 6 feet long, in the swamp.

School principal Dwain Govan asked animal control to remove the alligators from school property, so they stay off of the football and softball fields.

Heavy rains over the summer caused the swamp to encroach on the fields.

The fences will be up before classes start at month’s end. But those students who have returned early for extracurricular activities, such as band member Likiesha Edwards, found something more than the start of fall classes to worry about.

“I think it’s very dangerous for football players and people like me in the band to go out there and practice,” she said.