The Bryan-College Station (Texas) Eagle is reporting that Katy, an 18-foot Burmese python, died this week. According to the article,

The 200-pound creature had been a teaching tool of Jim Dunlap’s since 1975, when he first took Katy to classes.

Dunlap says his grandfather always told him that you can’t teach anybody anything if you don’t have their attention.

“Katy was the best attention-getter that I ever had in the classroom,” Dunlap said.

And no, this is not a story from the Onion.