The snake was later destroyed.
A high school student in Orange City, Fla. was bitten by a coral snake after he picked the reptile up and took it to school with him.
Jay Ondreicka/Shutterstock
Eastern coral snake.
According to school administrators at University High School, the student apparently found the snake off campus and brought it with him. He was then bitten on the hand, near his knuckles.
"Coral snake, toxicity-wise, is very dangerous," Jason Hoffman of Critters Exotic Pet Rescue, a nonprofit for abandoned wild animals, told Wesh2.com.
The snake was killed so it wouldn’t harm others on campus, officials said.
Coral snakes are of the family Elapidae, which is made up of more than 120 species. They are found from Florida to the Philippines and all are venomous. The coral snakes in the United States are considered by some to be shy reptiles, but their venom is still very potent.
The eastern coral snake (Micrurus fulviusis) one of four venomous snakes known to live in Florida. The other venomous snakes in the state include the cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus), the dusky pygmy rattlesnake (Sistrurus miliarius barbouri), and the eastern diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus).
