TAMPA — When the front office heard about a small alligator on campus Monday, Stewart Middle Magnet School administrators said they thought small, like something you could scoop up or shoo away.

"I was thinking it was maybe 1 or 2 feet long," assistant principal Alex Samaras said. "But when I saw it, its head was 1 or 2 feet long."

The 7-foot alligator almost certainly crawled up out of the Hillsborough River, 100 or more yards away. It was first seen strolling through a teachers' parking lot toward a couple of classroom buildings about 7 a.m., half an hour before school. MORE HERE