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LAKE MARY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A Lake Mary middle school student is recovering days after being bitten by a snake on school grounds.
"I was walking from 3rd period and was throwing my water bottle away, and it made a sound and it bit me!" explained Devin Waxman, who attends Markham Woods Middle School. "I didn't see it before!"
The 14-year-old boy got two big fang marks on one of his ankles. He says the snake that bit him looked exactly like a deadly cotton mouth.
"It latched onto my leg, and I had to kick it off and run!"
That was Monday. On Thursday he said the pain was lingering.
"It still stings off and on. It's sore. I don't know when the pain is going to stop."
Cotton mouths are very common in Central Florida and their venom is potent, but Devin considers himself lucky. His bite was a dry bite -- no venom was injected.
"I'm very grateful for that. That could have been very bad if it went the other way."
He's right, which is why the Seminole County School District sent a warning to parents and students to be on alert.
Animal expert Bob Cross, who recently pulled a cotton mouth from someone's yard, says, "The drought is pushing them. I mean if the swamps are drying up, cotton mouths are just like alligators, they're going to go to the next water hole."
Devin is fine and back at school.